The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) (Washington, DC) is providing an additional public comment period through November 20, 2017, related to a proposed final rule on underground natural gas storage.
The agency’s interim final rule (IFR) titled “Pipeline Safety: Underground Natural Gas Storage Facilities” was issued on December 19, 2016, aimed at establishing minimum federal safety standards for intrastate and interstate underground gas storage facilities under PHMSA’s regulatory authority.
The rule revises U.S. pipeline safety regulations to address safety issues related to downhole facilities, PHMSA explains. These issues include well integrity, wellbore tubing, and casing.
This revised rule came in response to Section 12 of the U.S. PIPES Act, which requires PHMSA to enact minimum federal safety standards for underground natural gas storage facilities and addresses the concerns of the public highlighted by the Aliso Canyon gas leak incident of 2015, the agency says. The incident, which occurred near Los Angeles, California, resulted in the estimated release of 4.62 billion ft3 of gas. At Aliso Canyon, several wells were found to have casing corrosion or mechanical damage.
The proposed rule incorporates recommended practices 1170 and 1171 by the American Petroleum Institute (API) (Washington, DC), the agency explains. Those practices outline standards for the design and operation of solution-mined salt caverns used for natural gas storage, and the functional integrity of natural gas storage in depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs and aquifer reservoirs.
The incorporation of these practices is designed to provide PHMSA and states with a minimum federal standard for inspection, enforcement, and training through a partnership between federal and state officials, as well as a certification process modeled after the current U.S. pipeline safety program. The standards will directly apply to ~200 interstate facilities, and serve as the minimum federal standard for ~200 intrastate facilities, PHMSA says.
Recently, however, PHMSA says it chose to reopen the comment period for 30 days in response to a reconsideration petition filed by the API, the American Gas Association (AGA) (Washington, DC), and the American Public Gas Association (APGA) (Washington, DC) industry groups. PHMSA says it will respond to all public comments and address the petition for reconsideration in a final rule.