Company: ATO
Filing Date: 2025-03-27
Form Type: CORRESP
Source: 0000731802-25-000010
Chunk: 2

Company: ATMOS ENERGY CORP
Filing Date: 2025-03-27
Form: CORRESP
Chunk 2
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 that meet or exceed regulatory requirements.

Second, while we have a model for managing risks to the integrity of our natural gas infrastructure, no single factor is determinative in our decision to take mitigative actions. We describe in further detail below our integrity management programs and our ongoing efforts to consider the many factors that impact integrity management.

Consistent with our safety vision and PHMSA’s Distribution Integrity Management Rule, we have a distribution integrity management (“DIM”) program and plan, the primary objective of which is to manage the integrity and safety of our natural gas distribution systems. The DIM process integrates information sources and data, identifies risks to the integrity of distribution infrastructure, ranks risks, and designates measures and actions to reduce or mitigate risks as appropriate. Those mitigative actions can include a number of measures such as accelerated leak survey frequency, pipeline replacement, and additional public awareness.

As part of our DIM program, we use a framework for evaluating and ranking risks that was originally developed by a group of natural gas distribution operators in coordination with the Gas Technology Institute (“GTI”), and Operations Technology Development. We engaged a third-party global leader in assurance and risk management to incorporate this framework into a Distribution Risk Assessment Model, or DRAM, that configures over one hundred risk model input factors and weightings to reflect Atmos Energy’s distribution systems and operating environments.

In 2020, we engaged another third-party expert to perform an independent review and assessment of those input factors and weightings against industry best practices, and we adopted as appropriate its conclusions into the DRAM. Factors include, without limitation, population density, material and soil type, pipe age, legacy construction practices, leak history, pipe coating, and corrosion data. Most recently, we have updated the DRAM to address considerations related to the potential for unreported damage to be present on our facilities from third-party excavation activities, for differential ground movement in our service territories, for consequences related to rain and soil wetness, and for threats to combine and act together. No single factor, such as the age of pipe or leak history, is determinative in our decision to take mitigative actions on our distribution pipeline systems, including accelerated leak survey or pipeline replacement.

We also have a transmission integrity management (“TIM”) program and plan applicable to our transmission pipeline systems in our distribution and pipeline and storage segments. The TIM program and plan take into account a variety of factors and are consistent with our vision to be the safest provider of natural gas services and PHMSA’s Gas Transmission Pipeline Integrity Management Rule. As with our DIM program