Terrorist Fear
and Pipeline Disasters
No need for words - just watch the video below:-
UK - House of Commons
November 20, 2006
“For the sceptical, there is ample evidence of major LNG fire incidents—for instance, in the USA. As a result of their experience, no such plant is allowed in America within miles of residential homes. An American documentary film, 'The Risks and Dangers of LNG' by Tim Riley, covers many aspects of the dangers of LNG, including the history of accidents, the environmental impact, spills and vapour clouds, and the terrorist implications in relation to LNG tanks, tankers and pipelines.”
LNG Pipeline disasters
Nigeria – August 2005
Eleven people died and aquatic life completely destroyed when a 28-inch Liquefied Natural Gas underground pipeline exploded at Kalakama, an Ogoloma fishing community in Okrika Local Government Area of Rivers State.
The incident resulted in a wild inferno, which engulfed an estimated 27 square kilometres of the once rich Kalakama mangrove, killing sea foods and cash crops. So huge, the impact of the explosion was felt on the Okrika Island and the Borikiri area of Port Harcourt where, residents were forced into a stampede for safety.
Problem started more than two months ago, when a minor gas leakage was noticed by inhabitants of the Kalakama fishing community, upon which a formal report was said to have been lodged with Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) by His Royal Majesty, Chief Nemi Tamunoiyalla-Oputibeya, Amanyanabo of Koniama.
The leakage assumed a frightening dimension, last week Monday, when a wild fire was first reported, before culminating in a major gas explosion. It took NLNG fire fighters, using hi-tech helicopter services, more than 48 hours to put out the fire, but not before shutting down the NLNG gas plant at Rumuoji substation.
Rivers State Environment Commissioner, Dr. Roseline Konya, on a visit to the area, last Monday described the incident as a great disaster, and blamed it on bureaucratic delays by companies in treating life-threatening complaints.
Leader of the Okrika delegation and chairman of the Okrika Divisional Council of Chiefs, Chief Taribo Sekibo-Oduobaji blamed the incident on negligence on the part of NLNG.
Chief Oduobaji, who was a Second Republic Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum and Gas Matters, said it was unimaginable that a report involving gas leakage could be allowed to snowball into such huge disaster.
Belgium – July 2004
In Belgium's worst industrial accident in nearly 40 years, a major natural gas pipeline exploded, killing more than 24 people and injuring 131, including fire fighters and police responding to a report of a leak, officials said.
Construction workers at a building site in the Ghislenghien industrial area 40 kilometres, or 25 miles, south of Brussels reported a strong smell of gas when they arrived at work in the morning. Firemen arrived and were cordoning off the area when the gas blew up, said Michele Vanderplaetsen, a Health Ministry spokeswoman.
The blast catapulted bodies and debris as far as 500 meters, or 1,600 feet, away, according to news reports. "There were bodies in parking lots, in the fields, burned-out cars in an area half a kilometre wide. It looks like a war zone," a fire department spokesman, Francis Boileau, told Reuters.
Olivier Rampelberg, who lives near the site of the explosion, told the Belgian television station RTBF that he heard a sound like thunder just after 9 a.m. "It sounded like continuous thunder," he said. "Then little grains of scorched earth rained down." Bodies and debris from the blast scattered hundreds of metres around disaster site.
A crisis centre was set up in a local school and hospitals with burns units in Germany, France and Britain offered to help treat the victims, six people were taken to hospitals in France.
The Belgian gas distributor Fluxys said the pipeline that exploded ran between the Belgian port of Zeebrugge and France. It was a meter, or 36 inches, in diameter and carried 1.6 million cubic meters of gas per hour under 71BAR pressure.
Algeria – January 2004
A huge explosion at a key gas installation killed 23 persons. The blast at the petrochemical complex in the port city of Skikda, 500 km east of the capital Algiers, also caused at least 74 injuries and shut down all activity at the oil and gas refinery complex.
It was still not clear what caused the blast, which was felt for kilometres and destroyed three of the refinery’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) units. Officials said they believed the blast was caused by an accident at one of the LNG units.
OPEC-member Algeria, which has been hit by a decade of Islamic rebel violence, is a major oil and gas producer and has one of the world’s largest natural gas reserves. It’s a key supplier of gas to Spain and Italy.
A Reuters reporter at the scene said fires were still burning at the Mediterranean refinery complex operated by state-owned energy group Sonatrach, where 12,000 persons work.
Khelil said the oil installations at Skikda, which produce 335,000 barrels per day, were not destroyed in the blast but the main electricity plant serving the industrial zone was damaged and had been halted as a preventive measure.
The port contributed 84 percent of the 14 million tonnes of oil destined for exports each year.
Colorado – March 2003
A natural-gas pipeline explosion that sent an orange plume of flame hundreds of feet into the air killed one worker. Bobby Ray Owens 52, of Louisiana, died in the blast that occurred after the bulldozer he was operating severed a gas line, said Laramie County Sheriff's Department spokesman Gerry Luce.
The fire, which could be seen as far away as Johnson's Corner, south of Loveland, Colo., burned for more than an hour. The tower of flame southwest of Cheyenne lured motorists and Cheyenne residents to park just off Interstate 25's exit 2, just north of the Wyoming-Colorado border; some were taking photographs.
Ginny Gassa of Fort Collins, Colo., saw it happen in Wellington and didn't know what to think at first. "It was a mushroom cloud," said Gassa, who then headed north and parked at exit 2. Many heard the explosion and watched the clean-burning flame dancing in the middle of the plains.
But ranch manager Frank Twitchell and his family felt the blast when it happened just before 9:30 a.m. "It was a huge boom," said the manager of the Duck Creek Ranch, which is about two miles north of the Colorado border and just west of Interstate 25. "And the house shook - it was like a giant earthquake. Our first thought was that it was a plane crash." But when they stepped outside to have a look, it was obvious what had happened: Pipeline construction had gone wrong.
Authorities had to wait for several hours after the fire was out to get to Owens. The temperature of the ground was more than 300 degrees Fahrenheit in the early afternoon, Luce said. Natural gas has an ignition temperature of 1,076 degrees Fahrenheit, twice that of gasoline, according to www.engineeringtoolbox.com.
The 36-inch pipeline that was struck belonged to Wyoming Interstate Company, which is owned by El Paso Corp. Lisa Marshall, spokeswoman for El Paso Corp. in Houston, that the pipeline has existed since the early 1980s. It carries natural gas to Colorado's Front Range, she said.
Marshall said she did not have information about the depth at which the pipeline is buried where the rupture occurred. She said general protocol calls for companies to call before they start digging in a pipeline area and to use maps that show where pipelines are located.
New Mexico – August 2000
A 30-inch diameter natural gas transmission pipeline ruptured adjacent to the Pecos River near Carlsbad, New Mexico. Twelve campers were killed and they were 1.2kms away. The gas burned for 55 minutes after the explosion and seismographs recorded the huge compression waves in the ground.
The force of the rupture and the violent ignition of the escaping gas created a 51foot-wide crater about 113 feet along the pipe. A 49-foot section of the pipe was ejected from the crater in three pieces measuring approximately 3 feet, 20 feet, and 26 feet in length. The largest piece was found about 287 feet northwest of the crater. The accident was caused by internal corrosion.
The victims belonged to two extended families camping at a site near the Pecos River when the pipeline exploded 500 feet away. Burning fuel rained down from the sky onto the victims, federal officials said. Some had been fishing along the river’s banks, their lanterns set up to light their way, officials said. Others had been asleep. Officials said they would have had no chance to escape the flash of fire that caught them between the river and the exploded gas line.
Witnesses say the blast sent a ball of flames into the sky. “It looked devastating,” said Saul Ray Sanchez, assistant chief of the Loving Fire Department. Sanchez, one of the first firefighters on the scene, said he saw a scorched car. The heat from the explosion completely melted away the tires. The heat was so intense it turned sand into glass and part of a concrete bridge structure turned into powder.
The pipeline company, El Paso Energy, says the pipeline was installed in 1950, and was inspected earlier this month. “It goes into an area where a transition to go across the river and there’s a lot of valves and turns in the pipeline,” said John Somerhalder, president of the company’s pipeline group. “This part of the pipeline is not capable of being inspected internally.”
Near the river’s edge, investigators found melted geometric shapes that once were tents. Three charred pickup trucks looked as though they had taken a direct hit from a bomb.
The area is clearly marked with signs stating that there are high pressurized gas lines nearby but it is still an unrestricted area. That means anyone can come in here and camp, walk or take a picnic.
Russia - 1989
The most horrific European rail accident of recent years happened in Russia when an underground LNG pipeline leaked and was not detected. The explosion erupted beneath two trains carrying more than 1,200 people near the town of Ufa, killing about 645 people. The trains were vaporised.
Since 1996 there have been 96 deaths and 189 injuries from gas pipeline incidents: there have been 54 incidents alone in the USA and Canada, some of which are fatal.
In December 1999, a low pressure gas underground gas pipeline owned by National grid (formally) Transco exploded in Scotland killing 4 people, National Grid were fined £15 million (a UK record) by a High Court last year following an inquiry. National Grid breached Health & Safety regulations. The explosion was believed to have been caused by gas leaking from a rotting main.
A year later National Grid (formally Transco) were accused of making "misleading claims over its record on safety improvements".
A report reveals that Transco failed to reach the Ofgem targets for replacing cast iron pipelines in 2000, even though Transco claimed to have met them. Commenting on the report David Davidson, the Tory spokesman on finance and oil and gas said. "This is a surprising development. When you are working in such a dangerous industry, you must have clarity in the information you provide on your activities".
Transco (NG) were fined £1million and ordered to pay costs of £134,000 at Manchester Crown Court in Oct 2005. After pleading guilty to "breaching health & safety law", following a fatal gas explosion. Transco pleaded guilty to Section 3(1) of the H&S at Work Act 1974.
Written by Sam Wilkinson.
