Don Santa, President of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, discusses pipeline safety on a panel on Platts Energy TV. September 23, 2012.
In December 2010, INGAA’s Board of Directors established a board-level task force to pursue ways to further improve the industry’s safety performance and restore public confidence in the natural gas pipeline infrastructure. In March 2011, INGAA members formally adopted a set of Guiding Principles for pipeline safety.
Five Guiding Principles for Pipeline Safety
Our goal is zero incidents -a perfect record of safety and reliability for the national pipeline system. We will work every day toward this goal.- We are committed to safety culture as a critical dimension to continuously improve our industry’s performance.
- We will be relentless in our pursuit of improving by learning from the past and anticipating the future.
- We are committed to applying integrity management principles on a system-wide basis.
- We will engage our stakeholders - from the local community to the national level - so they understand and can participate in reducing risk.
Priority Issues for the Pipeline Safety Task Force
- Stakeholder Outreach: Two-way communication with meaningful performance measures.
- Risk Management: Applying risk-management concepts beyond the current plan, which centers on high-consequence areas, to include a comprehensive threat analysis.
- Integrity Management Tools: Actively promote the Pipeline and Informed Planning Alliance, a joint government-industry-stakeholder group, and enhance corrosion and anomaly management.
- Pipelines Built Prior to PHMSA Regulations: Develop an inventory and protocols for managing integrity.
- Technology Development and Deployment: Improve crack-detection tools and management; work with PHMSA to produce an R+D roadmap; and define assessment alternatives for non-piggablelines.
- Management Systems: Apply safety culture principles to drive and enhance safety practices across the industry.
- Emergency Preparedness and Response: Update isolation valve evaluation; enhance public awareness of pipelines.
- New Construction: Fully implement the 2010-2011 INGAA Foundation Pipe Quality and Construction Action Plans.