Briefing Paper March 24, 2011

Onshore Gas Gathering

Advisory Committee Action – Information

Contacts – Keith Coyle (legal) / DeWitt Burdeaux (technical)

Summary:

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has established minimum federal 

safety standards for certain gas gathering lines. However, recent developments in the field of gas 

exploration and production, and PHMSA’s experience enforcing those standards, indicate that changes to 

the current regulatory framework are needed.

Background:

The Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 1968 gave the Department of Transportation (DOT) the authority 

to regulate pipeline facilities and persons engaged in the transportation of gas, except for the gathering of 

gas in rural areas.1 According to the legislative history, Congress determined that federal regulation of 

gas gathering was not needed based on the information available at that time.2

In 1970, DOT issued the original gas pipeline safety standards. Consistent with the statutory exclusion, 

those standards did not apply to rural gas gathering and defined the term “gathering line” as “a pipeline 

that transports gas from a current production facility to a transmission line or main.”3 Two subsequent 

efforts to modify the gathering line definition by rulemaking, initiated in 1974 and 1991, proved 

unsuccessful.4

In the Pipeline Safety Act of 1992, Congress directed DOT to redefine the term “gathering line” based on 

the functional and operational characteristics of those lines,5

and gave DOT the discretion to prescribe 

safety standards for “regulated gathering lines” in light of certain factors. Four years later, in the 

Accountable Pipeline Safety and Partnership Act of 1996, Congress made clear that DOT had the 

authority to obtain information from the owners and operators of gathering lines to determine if further 

regulation of those lines was needed.6

 

1

Pub. L. No. 90-481, 82 Stat. 720 (1968) (currently codified with amendments at 49 U.S.C. §§ 60101 et. seq.). 

2 H.R. REP. NO. 1390 (1968), reprinted in 1968 U.S.C.C.A.N. 3223, 3234-35.

3

35 Fed. Reg. 317, 318, 320 (Jan. 8, 1970); 35 Fed. Reg. 13248, 13258 (Aug. 19, 1970). 

4

39 Fed. Reg. 34569 (Sep. 26, 1974); 43 Fed. Reg. 42773 (Sept. 21, 1978); 56 Fed. Reg. 48505 (Sept. 25, 1991)

5

Pub. L. No. 102-508, 106 Stat. 3289 (Oct. 24, 1992) (currently codified at 49 U.S.C. § 60101(b)).

6

Pub. L. No. 104-304, § 12, 110 Stat. 3793 (Jan. 3, 1996) (currently codified at 49 U.S.C. 60117(b)). 
In March 2006, PHMSA issued a final rule defining the terms “onshore gathering line” and “regulated 

onshore gathering line.”7

Analysis:

Those definitions were based, in part, on the American Petroleum Institute

Recommended Practice 80 (API RP 80), a consensus industry standard incorporated into 49 CFR Part 192 

by reference. That final rule also established a two-tiered, risk-based regime of safety standards for 

onshore gathering lines based on their location, maximum allowable operating pressure (MAOP), and

pipe type.

Recent developments in the field of gas exploration and production indicate that the framework for 

regulating gas gathering lines may no longer be appropriate. The gathering lines being constructed to 

transport “shale” gas typically range in diameter from 12” – 36” with an MAOP of 1480 psig, far 

exceeding the historical operating parameters of such lines. Moreover, data from the 2009 calendar year 

indicates that there approximately 230,000 miles of gas gathering lines in the U.S., and that PHMSA only 

regulates about 20,150 miles of those lines. As important, enforcement of the current regulations has 

been hampered by the uncertainties that exist in applying API RP 80, a complex standard (which includes 

an appendix with more than 20 explanatory diagrams) that can produce multiple classifications for the 

same pipeline system.

Recommendations:

! Amend 49 CFR Part 191 to require the submission of annual, incident, and safety-related 

conditions reports by the operators of all gathering lines.

! Amend 49 CFR Part 192 to include a new definition for the term gathering line.

! Consider establishing a new, risk-based regime of safety requirements for large-diameter, highpressure gas gathering lines in rural locations.

 

7

71 Fed. Reg. 13289 (Mar. 15, 2006).