During a recent conference call concerning the gas pipeline Integrity Management Rule, Mike Israni of OPS stated that OPS is making good progress toward having a final rule in place by the end of 2002. He noted that a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) will precede it by mid-year. He also commented that the gas rule would address the use of Direct Assessment, but the final language on this topic was still under development. The final rule may include both prescriptive and performance based assessment criteria.
Mr. Israni also commented that OPS is developing a mapping rule for both liquid and gas pipelines that may be issued as a NOPR or as a final rule sometime later this year.