Hazardous

Because of “dramatic improvements in pipeline technology and risk controls” over the past 25 years, the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) is proposing to amend pipeline safety regulations to allow certain gas transmission pipelines to operate at pressures based on higher stress levels, thus expanding operating capacity.

Alliance Pipeline, on the leading edge of a new pipeline trend in the United States, has filed with FERC and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to increase the maximum allowed operating pressure (MAOP) of the U.S. portion of the line from 72% of the specified minimum yield strength (SMYS) to 80%.

A small but dramatic accident involving hazardous “sour” natural gas just outside the Alberta capital of Edmonton has left Canadian producers braced for more of their long and increasingly difficult campaign to keep access to a key supply source.

A small but dramatic accident involving hazardous “sour” natural gas just outside the Alberta capital of Edmonton has left Canadian producers braced for more of their long and increasingly difficult campaign to keep access to a key supply source.

Stress-corrosion cracking (SCC) is a far more extensive problem on natural gas pipelines and hazardous liquid pipelines in Canada than in the United States, according to a draft version of a joint study released by the Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) Friday.

Stress-corrosion cracking (SCC) is a far more extensive problem on natural gas pipelines and hazardous liquid pipelines in Canada than in the United States, according to a draft version of a joint study released by the Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) Friday.

As is already required of hazardous liquid pipelines, the Department of Transportation’s Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) has enacted revised safety standards that call on natural gas transmission and distribution pipelines to use the same level of protection against atmospheric corrosion on their facilities despite the vintage.

As is already required of hazardous liquid pipelines, the Department of Transportation’s Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) has enacted revised safety standards that call on natural gas transmission and distribution pipelines to use the same level of protection against atmospheric corrosion despite the vintage of their pipe facilities.

The Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) has taken a number of “steps in the right direction” to improve its oversight of the safety of natural gas and hazardous liquids pipelines, but it still has a long way to go, a General Accounting Office (GAO) official told Congress last week.