PST’s Data Manager James Eager walks us through one state’s pipeline safety track record each month. Click on the “State of Safety” tag at the bottom of the post to see all of James’s entries to date.
This analysis considers all incidents which occurred in Missouri over the 2010-2022 time period, regardless if they fall under state or federal jurisdiction.
Quick Facts
From 2010 to 2022, pipelines in Missouri caused:
- 114 total reported incidents, including:
- 63 Hazardous Liquid incidents
- 16 Gas Transmission incidents
- 35 Gas Distribution incidents
- 45 significant incidents
- 4 incidents ending in injury and/or fatality causing:
- 7 hospitalizations
- 1 fatality
- 16 incidents resulting in fire and/or explosion
- 601 evacuations
- Incidents have released:
- 409,523 gallons of hazardous liquids
- 677,076 thousand cubic feet (mscf) of gas
Incident Breakdown
Missouri’s incident rate trends below the national incident rate and average of its neighbors (Plot 1). Significant incidents appear more volatile, but more often than not, Missouri has fewer significant incidents per mile than its national and neighbor comparisons (Plot 2).
As presented in Plot 3, the highest-cost incident was on a gas distribution system. The incident on the former Missouri Gas Energy pipeline (now under operation of Spire Missouri Inc. West) resulted in an explosion in Kansas City on Feb. 19, 2013. The explosion, caused by third-party excavation damage, killed one, injured four, and required the evacuation of two structures, per PHMSA incident data and the Missouri Public Service Commission’s report. According to Reuters, the explosion also destroyed a restaurant – noted as a Kansas City landmark – and caused 15 total injuries, including three people put in serious condition and three put in critical condition. It’s important to note that PHMSA’s incident reports only count overnight hospital stays, so there can often be discrepancies between PHMSA incident reports and third-party reported pipeline impacts.
Of the five costliest incidents since 2010, two were liquids, two were gas transmission lines, and one was the aforementioned distribution explosion. The liquid pipeline failures, which released a combined 19,614 gallons of crude oil, were caused by equipment failure and incorrect operation – both considered causes an operator has direct control over. The two transmission incidents were caused by a material failure of the pipe or weld and corrosion failure. Similarly, these are causes an operator has more control over – compared to natural force damage, for example – and resulted in a combined 387,302 mscf of natural gas released.
In general, Missouri’s incidents are causing less damage than the national average. The average MO incident causes $685,789 of damage compared to $1,119,427 nationwide. When assessing damage by cause, this trend generally holds. The causes which spur the highest-cost incidents in each system nationwide are incorrect operation of gas distribution lines and material failures on liquid or transmission lines. In Missouri, these causes are not resulting in quite the same level of damage as seen elsewhere in the country. However, excavation damage on distribution lines and incorrect operation of liquids lines are proving to be more destructive causes in the state, compared to national trends.
Ultimately, among hazardous liquids and gas transmission pipelines, the incident causes which are more heavily operator-controlled (corrosion, incorrect operation, material failures, and equipment failures) cause far more total damage in Missouri than other causes. On gas distribution pipelines, most incident damage is caused by excavation damage which accounts for 84% of its damage cost, 40% of total incidents (most), and 24% of significant incidents (second most). Conversely, incidents on liquids and transmission pipelines are more often due to equipment failure (51% of liquid; 25% of transmission). The costliest incidents on transmission lines in Missouri are often material failures of the pipe or weld ($2,226,371 per incident); while on liquids lines incorrect operation causes the most costly damage per incident ($1,205,214).
Operator Analysis
Of the 95 unique pipeline operator IDs in Missouri, 28 have been responsible for at least one incident since 2010. Twelve of these 28 operate integrity management programs under a different primary operator. In some cases, the relationships between subsidiary and primary are relatively clear, like with subsidiary operators like Enable Midstream and Enable Mississippi River Transmission. In some cases, the relationship is less obvious, as with Enbridge and CCPS Transportation.
The table below presents the three operators with the most incidents for each system in the state of Missouri over the 2010 – 2022 period. The trend column displays their annual incidents from 2010 to 2022, with a yellow point at their maximum and blue point at their minimum. The rows labeled “Other” is an average of the other parent operators for each given system in Missouri – including those without any incidents during this period. Significant incidents are presented as a percent of total incidents, and incident rates are given as incidents per 1,000 miles. Finally, releases are reported in thousand standard cubic feet (mscf) for gas incidents and gallons (Gal.) for hazardous liquids.
Incidents |
Cost (K, USD) |
Releases |
|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parent Operator | 2022 Mileage | Total | Percent Significant | per 1K Miles | Trend | Total | per Incident | Total | per Incident |
| Hazardous Liquids | |||||||||
| ENBRIDGE (HL) | 300.60 | 11.0 | 55% | 36.59 | 2,948 | 268 | 5,472 | 497 | |
| EXPLORER PIPELINE CO | 295.08 | 8.0 | 25% | 27.11 | 2,915 | 364 | 28,449 | 3,556 | |
| BUCKEYE | 282.38 | 7.0 | 43% | 24.79 | 1,287 | 184 | 895 | 128 | |
| PHILLIPS 66 | 537.34 | 7.0 | 71% | 13.03 | 1,144 | 163 | 99,550 | 14,221 | |
| SINCLAIR TRANSPORTATION COMPANY | 204.88 | 7.0 | 57% | 34.17 | 2,074 | 296 | 15,596 | 2,228 | |
| 12 Others (HL, avg.) | 58.50 | 0.4 | 5% | 1.26 | 233 | 60 | 4,628 | 777 | |
| Gas Distribution | |||||||||
| SPIRE MISSOURI EAST (fmr. LACLEDE GAS CO) | 16,882.55 | 17.0 | 76% | 1.01 | 4,540 | 267 | 34,811 | 2,048 | |
| SPIRE MISSOURI WEST (fmr. MISSOURI GAS ENERGY) (GD) | 15,562.88 | 16.0 | 62% | 1.03 | 25,630 | 1,602 | 62,407 | 3,900 | |
| 52 Others (GD, avg.) | 356.68 | 0.0 | 4% | 0.01 | 10 | 10 | 15 | 15 | |
| Gas Transmission | |||||||||
| ENERGY TRANSFER (GT) | 1,172.85 | 5.0 | 80% | 4.26 | 5,610 | 1,122 | 308,371 | 61,674 | |
| SOUTHERN STAR CENTRAL GAS PIPELINE, INC | 853.58 | 4.0 | 75% | 4.69 | 1,696 | 424 | 4,757 | 1,189 | |
| ENABLE MIDSTREAM | 280.06 | 3.0 | 67% | 10.71 | 739 | 246 | 24,639 | 8,213 | |
| 21 Others (GT, avg.) | 37.60 | 0.1 | 3% | 1.53 | 80 | 77 | 4,641 | 4,640 | |
To offer a holistic view of the relative responsibility of operators in Missouri, this table can be referenced in conjunction with Plot 6, which looks at each named operator’s incident causes. This matrix presents a concerning suggestion: the majority of Explorer, Philips 66, and Enbridge incidents are due to equipment failure. This cause is more easily addressed by operators and suggests significant room for improvement for a couple of major pipeline operators in MO.
Plot 7 sheds some more light on which operators are responsible for some of the state’s most impactful incidents during this period. Using a grouped z-score of incident releases, we can identify which release sizes were well above average per system in the state during this period – as a z-score of 0 denotes the mean release size per system. The largest relative incident in the state was an Enterprise spill on November 29, 2016 in Platte City, MO, which released 210,000 gallons of highly volatile liquids due to cracking of the pipe caused by environmental factors – a “material failure of pipe or weld,” per PHMSA designations. Other labeled incidents include those more than five times the average release size for their systems and those with multiple fatalities per PHMSA’s reports.
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