TransCanada blames 2013 pipeline rupture on miscommunication

By Mike De Souza
CALGARY, Nov 9 (Reuters) - The rupture of a TransCanada Corp
TRP.TO natural gas pipeline in 2013 in Alberta was caused by
"miscommunication" between staff and contractors that built the
piece of the line that failed, the company said on Monday.
TransCanada, the company behind the recently rejected
Keystone XL oil pipeline, made the comments after a report last
week from Canada's transportation safety watchdog on the gas
line rupture.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada said inadequate
inspections and oversight by TransCanada were factors in the
accident on its North Central Corridor line near the oil sands
hub of Fort McMurray, Alberta.
TransCanada had overstated the pressure rating of the
pipeline and was running it beyond its design limits, the report
said. It added that inadequate inspections led the company to
use "information from the manufacturing design drawings instead
of a direct measurement."
TransCanada spokesman Davis Sheremata said that a
miscommunication with the contractors that built the pipeline
component which failed was to blame.
He said TransCanada conducted the required repairs and was
using the incident as a "learning opportunity" to improve its
inspection program.
Evan Vokes, a former TransCanada engineer, said he warned
the industry regulator, the National Energy Board (NEB), in a
written complaint from May 2012 about the pipeline component
that failed, among other allegations.
The NEB, which later confirmed some of Vokes' warnings in a
2014 report, said in 2012 that it was investigating the
allegations but that it saw no immediate threat to public safety
or the environment.
The NEB did not immediately respond to questions about the
report.
The rupture created a crater about 50 metres (165 feet)
long, sending fragments up to 130 metres away on a traditional
Cree hunting land, the report said. There were no nearby homes,
but the report also said the rupture was within 250 metres of a
hunting cabin and affected two oil sands customers.
The report comes as Canada's newly elected Liberal
government pledges to review federal oversight of resource
development, addressing criticism from some environmental and
landowner groups that the former Conservative government was too
close to the industry.