Jeff Foote,
Director Pipeline Integrity Technology,
T.D. Williamson, USA,
looks at how
companies can comply with PHMSA’s new
integrity verification process.
N
ew regulations from the Pipeline Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration (PHMSA) are a lot like those
first grey hairs that inevitably come with age – even
though you expect them, they can still sneak up on
you. Take, for example, PHMSA’s Advisory Bulletin 2012-06.
This bulletin was PHMSA’s notice to US natural gas
transmission operators about the changes they will be
required to make when verifying and reporting operating
specifications for maximum allowable operating pressure
(MAOP) and maximum operating pressure (MOP). Part of the
agency’s proposed integrity verification process (IVP), the
pending regulation means that all gas transmission operators
will eventually have to integrate new methodologies into
their integrity management programmes and be ready for
agency audits.
Although the bulletin was issued more than two years
ago, the timetable for compliance remains unknown. No
one can say with certainty when IVP will go into effect. Even
the comment period, originally expected for early 2015, has
turned into a moving target.
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