Louisiana Natural Gas Release Incidents Louisiana 2010-2012 Review

BACKGROUND:  Being America's second largest natural gas producing state, large volumes of natural gas are produced, stored, transported, and distributed throughout Louisiana. Natural gas release accidents happen almost every day in Louisiana, and some of the incidents may cause property damages, injuries, or even fatalities.

METHODS:  Several data sets for the natural gas events in Louisiana from 2010 to 2012 were provided to the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals(LDHH) through the courtesy of the Louisiana State Police (LSP) as Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. These spreadsheets were imported and appended into one Microsoft Access database.

RESULTS:  The majority of the reported natural gas release accidents in Louisiana from 2010 to 2012 were caused by excavation, i.e. digging near existing gas line. In addition, seasonal trends show fewer accidents incidents in the colder months of January, February, November, and December and increased accidents in the warmer months of May, June, July, and August.

CONCLUSIONS:  Frequently excavation damage results from either someone excavating without calling in and waiting the standard 48-hours, or from the gas company wrongly marking the location of its lines. Therefore preventing these two scenarios would help to reduce injuries in natural gas release incidents.