[Docket No. PHMSA-2018-0137]

Effective January 1, 2018, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has determined that the minimum random drug testing rate for all covered employees will be 50% during calendar year 2018. Operators of gas, hazardous liquid, and carbon dioxide pipelines and operators of liquefied natural gas facilities must randomly select and test a percentage of all covered employees for prohibited drug use. The minimum annual random drug testing rate was 25% of all covered employees for calendar year 2017. However, the PHMSA regulations require the Administrator to raise the minimum annual random drug testing rate from 25% to 50% of all covered employees when the data obtained from the Management Information System reports (required to be filed by covered entities under PHMSA regulations) indicate the positive test rate is equal to or greater than 1%. In calendar year 2016, the random drug test positive test rate was greater than 1%. Therefore, the PHMSA minimum annual random drug testing rate shall be 50% of all covered employees for calendar year 2018.

Operators are also reminded that drug and alcohol testing information must be submitted for contractors performing or ready to perform covered functions. For calendar year 2017 reporting, PHMSA will not attempt to mail the “user name” and “password” for the Drug and Alcohol Management Information System (DAMIS) to operators, but will make the user name and password available in the PHMSA Portal.

For further information, contact Wayne Lemoi, Drug & Alcohol Program Manager, at 909–937–7232 or by email; or Blaine Keener, Director of Safety Data Systems and Analysis, at 202–366–0970 or by email.

For a copy of PHMSA’s notice from the Federal Register, contact Jessica Foley.

JANUARY 23 – 25, 2018

Join us January 23-25, 2018 in Houston at our corporate office and dedicated training facility for an informative, lively, and interactive workshop on DOT Pipeline Compliance topics. The workshop provides an overview of the DOT pipeline regulations in 49 CFR 191, 192, 194, 195, and 199. It also describes pipeline operations and engineering concepts. It is appropriate for people who are new to pipeline regulations, who could use a refresher, or anyone who needs to know the latest developments in these areas. This workshop will be a combined format, addressing both gas and liquid pipeline topics in parallel. This will eliminate some redundancy of materials, and will allow more time for in-depth discussions for each topic.

Topics to be addressed in the workshop include:

• An overview of DOT/OPS pipeline compliance requirements
• State and Federal agency roles for pipeline safety
• PHMSA Jurisdiction
• PHMSA Inspections and Enforcement Processes
• Engineering Concepts and Stress ? Strain Relationships; %SMYS
• Design Requirements
• Construction Requirements
• Corrosion Control Concepts and Requirements
• Operations and Maintenance Requirements
• Emergency Response Requirements (including spill response planning requirements for liquid pipelines)
• Damage Prevention Programs
• Operator Qualification Programs
• Drug and Alcohol Programs
• Public Awareness Programs
• Integrity Management (gas and liquid) Programs
• Control Room Management Programs

We will also discuss the PIPES Act of 2016; recent Advisory Bulletins from PHMSA; and new, pending and proposed rulemakings.

Each attendee will receive the presentation as well as applicable handouts in a hardcopy notebook, and electronic copies of the applicable regulations and voluminous reference materials including rulemakings, letters of interpretation, and other guidance documents. The workshop will adjourn at 2 p.m. on the third day, for those who need to fly out Thursday evening.

To register for our workshop, click here.

[Docket No. PHMSA-2017-0129]

On August 16, 2017, the Office of Management and Budget approved the collection of calendar year (CY) 2017 Underground Natural Gas Storage Facility Annual Reports. PHMSA issued a Notice of their proposal to use CY 2017 annual report data in the user fee rate structure for both fiscal year (FY) 2018 and 2019. During the FY 2018 user fee process, PHMSA will use CY 2016 annual report data for gas transmission pipelines, hazardous liquid pipelines, and liquefied natural gas facilities. Using CY 2016 data ensures adequate time to verify annual report data quality.

PHMSA proposes the following steps for developing the user fee rate structure. PHMSA will sum the number of wells from sections C7 and C8 of the UNGS annual report for each operator. The operator well counts will be parsed into 10 tiers. The lowest values will be in tier 1 and the highest values in tier 10. The minimum and maximum well counts for each tier will be selected to place an equal number of operators in each tier. The tier fee structure is designed to place a larger share of the user fee on operators with higher well counts. The following percentages of the total user fee would be billed to each tier:

PHMSA invites interested persons to comment on the underground natural gas storage facility data collection described in this notice by January 8, 2018. Comments may be submitted on the E-Gov web site. Reference Docket No. PHMSA–2017–0129 at the beginning of your comments.

For of copy PHMSA’s Notice from the Federal Register, contact Jessica Foley.

How does RCP deliver a comprehensive solution for natural gas storage operational integrity assurance?

Experienced Resources

• Highly respected underground storage & risk management SME’s (the past Chair of PRCI’s and AGA’s underground storage committees is on our staff)
• Professional engineering support
• Written program development / improvement from knowledgeable technical standards developers (Our lead technical writer was the editor for the API RP1170 development team.)

State-Of-The-Art Tools (TaskOp™)

• Program gap assessment and corrective action tracking
• Storage risk assessment
• Integrity assessment and remediation process tracking

For more information regarding our capabilities or to request an online demonstration of our TaskOp™ underground gas storage solution, visit our website or contact Jessica Foley.

The INGAA Foundation, a membership-based organization of over 200 natural gas pipeline operators, manufacturers and service providers, released two more installments of its “Construction Safety Guidelines” (“CSGs”) this December – Establishing Quality Metric for Natural Gas Pipeline Construction and Developing a Site-Specific Safety Plan.

The CSG initiative began in 2009 to steer the creation of safety guidance documents on a variety of construction topics, with the goal of enhancing safety culture and creating consistency across the natural gas industry. CSGs originate from highly demanded topics within the Foundation, and the suggestion process is open to all Foundation members. Each document begins with a collaborative base, produced from a representative industry sample of internal practices collected among member companies. This collection is evaluated to identify both commonly shared construction safety management practices as well as unique ones. A committee of safety experts reviews this information, examining both the consensus practices for accuracy and the unique practices for inclusion if they are innovative to safety. The membership then offers changes and suggestions, which are voted on by the committee. After a sufficient review period, the committee reviews, finalizes and distributes the guideline to the membership for integration into their own safety management procedures. Past CSGs, as well as information about the INGAA Foundation, can be found by clicking on this link to the INGAA Foundation.

PHMSA held a joint meeting with the Liquid Pipeline Advisory Committee (LPAC) and the Gas Pipeline Advisory Committee (GPAC) on December 13th and a GPAC-only meeting the following two days. Transcripts and presentations made at the meetings can be found here. Issues discussed at the joint LPAC and GPAC meeting included:

• Voluntary Information-Sharing Working Group
• Underground Gas Storage Interim Final Rule
• Pressure Vessel Testing Requirements
• Safety Management Systems
• Enforcement Update
• Excavation Damage Enforcement

The GPAC meeting was the third in a series of meetings to specifically discuss the Safety of Gas Transmission and Gathering NPRM. The committee was able to vote on 192.607 Material Verification with several modifications, including but not limited to the following:

• Remove applicability criteria and change this section to a process for material verification where required by other sections of Part 192.
• Remove requirements for a material verification plan.
• Retain the opportunistic approach of obtaining unknown or undocumented material properties when excavations are performed for other repairs or other reasons.
• Incorporate language stating that, if an operator does not receive an objection letter from PHMSA within 90 days of notifying PHMSA of an alternative sampling approach, the operator can proceed with their method.
• Reduce number of quadrants at which NDE tests must be made from 4 to 2.
• Delete specified program requirements for how to address sampling failures and replace with a requirement for operators to determine how to deal with sample failures through an expanded sample program that is specific to their system and circumstances.

Future GPAC meetings are planned for March and June.