Mega-Rule Archives

Material Verification for Oil and Gas Clients Pipeline Integrity Solutions

News & Views, Volume 50 | Material Verification for Oil and Gas Clients

October 6, 2021/in Company News, Mega-Rule, News and Views, Oil and Gas Pipeline, Roger Royer, Scott Riccardella/by Structural Integrity

PIPELINE INTEGRITY SOLUTIONS

By: Scott Riccardella and Roger Royer

On October 1, 2019, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) published amendments to 49 CFR Parts 191 and 192 in the Federal Register, issuing Part 1 of the Gas Transmission Mega-Rule or “Mega-Rule 1”. In advance of Mega-Rule 1, SI developed field protocol and supported leading industry research institutes in validating in-situ Material Verification (MV) methodologies. SI has continued to provide MV consulting support to our clients in response to Mega-Rule 1, ranging from program development and implementation to in-situ field data collection and analysis.

Various sections of Mega-Rule 1 require operators of natural gas transmission pipelines to ensure adequate Traceable, Verifiable, and Complete (TV&C) material records or implement a MV Program to confirm specific pipeline attributes including diameter, wall thickness, seam type, and grade. Operators are now required to define sampling programs and perform destructive (laboratory) or non-destructive testing to capture this information and take additional actions when inconsistent results are identified until a confidence level of 95% is achieved. Opportunistic sampling per population is required until completion of testing of one excavation per mile (rounded up to the nearest whole number).

News & Views, Volume 49 | Mission Critical Applications to Support the Mega-Rule

April 20, 2021/in Bruce Paskett, Mega-Rule, News and Views, Oil and Gas Pipeline, Scott Riccardella, Steven Biles/by Structural Integrity

By: Scott Riccardella, Bruce Paskett, and Steven Biles

On October 1, 2019, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) published amendments to 49 CFR Parts 191 and 192 in the Federal Register, issuing Part 1 of the Gas Transmission Mega-Rule. This new regulation is commonly referred to as the Mega-Rule since it represents the most significant regulatory impact on gas transmission pipelines since the original Gas Transmission Integrity Management Program (TIMP) Regulation was issued in 2003

The original Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) issued in April, 2016 was split into 3 Parts, with the first Part (Mega-Rule 1) including specific requirements to address congressional mandates in the 2012 Pipeline Safety Reauthorization, and other pipeline safety improvements, including:

Maximum Allowable Operating Pressure (MAOP) Reconfirmation (§192.624),
Material Verification (MV) (§192.607),
Engineering Critical Assessments for MAOP Reconfirmation (§192.632),
Analysis of Predicted Failure Pressure (§192.712),
Assessments Outside of High Consequence Areas (HCAs) (§192.710),
Additional Requirements to Evaluate Cyclic Fatigue (§192.917(e)(2)), and
Additional Analysis of Electric Resistance Welded (ERW) Seam Welds (§192.917(e)(4))

News & Views, Volume 48 | Implementation of Material Verification – In Support of Mega-Rule Part 1 Requirements

September 30, 2020/in David Babbitt, Mega-Rule, News and Views, Oil and Gas Pipeline, Roger Royer, Scott Riccardella/by Structural Integrity

By: Roger Royer, Scott Riccardella, and David Babbitt

Operators are now required to define sampling programs and perform destructive (laboratory) or non-destructive testing to capture this information and take additional actions when inconsistent results are identified until a confidence level of 95% is achieved.

Various sections of Mega-Rule 1 require operators of natural gas transmission pipelines to ensure adequate Traceable, Verifiable, and Complete (TV&C) material records or implement a Material Verification (MV) Program to confirm specific pipeline attributes including diameter, wall thickness, seam type, and grade. Operators are now required to define sampling programs and perform destructive (laboratory) or non-destructive testing to capture this information and take additional actions when inconsistent results are identified until a confidence level of 95% is achieved. Opportunistic sampling per population is required until completion of testing of one excavation per mile (rounded up to the nearest whole number) up to 150 excavations (if the population exceeds 150 miles). Regulators have communicated an expectation that sampling locations or test sites are to be equally spaced throughout the population mileage.

News & Views, Volume 47 | Release of the First Safety of Gas Transmission Pipeline Regulation Mega-Rule

March 3, 2020/in Andy Jensen, Bruce Paskett, Mega-Rule, News and Views, Oil and Gas Pipeline, Scott Riccardella/by Structural Integrity

By: Scott Riccardella, Bruce Paskett, and Andy Jensen

On October 1, 2019 the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) published amendments to 49 CFR Parts 191 and 192 in the Federal Register issuing Part 1 of the Gas Transmission Mega-Rule¹. This new regulation is commonly referred to as the Mega-Rule, as it represents the most significant regulatory impact on gas transmission pipelines since the original Gas Transmission Integrity Management Program (TIMP) Regulation was issued in 2003.

General Overview
As a result of numerous transmission pipeline accidents in the late 1990’s, the congressional Pipeline Safety Improvement Act of 2002 required operators of natural gas transmission lines to create TIMP Plans to identify transmission lines in High Consequence Areas (HCAs), conduct risk assessments and manage the integrity of covered segments in HCAs by conducting periodic integrity assessments. In 2010 through 2012, multiple incidents (Deep Water Horizon, San Bruno, California, Marshall, Michigan, Sissonville, WV) created a renewed focus on pipeline safety in Congress.

News & Views, Volume 45 | Gas Pipeline Safety Regulation Update

January 1, 2019/in Bruce Paskett, Eric Fisette, Mega-Rule, News and Views, Oil and Gas Pipeline, Scott Riccardella/by Structural Integrity

By: Scott Riccardella. Erica Fisette, and Bruce Paskett

Update on the Safety of Gas Transmission and Gathering Pipelines Rulemaking (known as the Mega-Rule)
Structural Integrity (SI) personnel have had significant involvement in the Gas Pipeline Advisory Group (GPAC) meetings focused on consideration of the proposed pipeline safety rule titled “Safety of Gas Transmission and Gathering Pipelines” (Notice of Proposed Rule Making April 8, 2016). The meetings produced several recommendations to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) that are likely to be included in the Final Rule. A key outcome of these meetings was that PHMSA has decided the Final Rule will be split into three sub-rule packages that will all be final rules to facilitate the rulemaking process:

Maximum Allowable Operating Pressure (MAOP) reconfirmation, Material Verification, Expansion of Integrity Management Assessments Outside of High Consequence Areas (HCAs) and other related issues,
Repair Criteria, Inspections Following Extreme Weather Events, Corrosion Control improvements, Management of Change; and
Expansion of Part 192 regulations to include additional Gas Gathering Lines.