[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 229 (Monday, November 30, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 65863-65864]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-31780]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Research and Special Programs Administration


Advisory Bulletin

AGENCY: Research and Special Programs Administration, (RSPA), DOT.

ACTION: Notice; issuance of advisory bulletin.

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SUMMARY: We are issuing this advisory bulletin to owners and operators 
of Hazardous Liquid and Natural Gas Pipelines located on the Outer 
Continental Shelf (OCS). The bulletin reminds operators of the 
September 15th, 1998, deadline to mark the point on their OCS pipeline 
facilities where operating responsibility transfers from a production 
operator to a transportation operator.

ADDRESSES: This document can be viewed on our home page at: http://
ops.dot.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Linda Daugherty, (202) 366-4577.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    We published a direct final rule amending the DOT pipeline safety 
regulations in 49 CFR parts 191, 192, and 195 consistent with an MOU 
(62 FR 61692; November 19, 1997) establishing the boundaries that will 
be used to delineate the locations over which the Department of 
Transportation and the Department of the Interior will exercise their 
respective regulatory authority over pipelines located on the OCS. The 
direct final rule excluded from DOT regulations OCS pipelines upstream 
from the point where operating responsibility transfers from a 
producing operator to a transporting operator. Also, the rule required 
operators to durably mark the specific points at which operating 
responsibility transfers or, if it is not practicable to durably mark a 
transfer point, to depict the transfer point on a schematic maintained 
near the transfer point. The requirement applies only to OCS pipelines 
on which there is a transfer of operating responsibility from a 
producing operator to a transporting operator. Producer-operated OCS 
pipelines on which there is no transfer of operating responsibility on 
the OCS have not been affected.

II. Advisory Bulletin (ADB-98-4)

    To: Owners and Operators of Hazardous Liquid and Natural Gas 
Pipelines.
    Subject: September 15, 1998, deadline to mark OCS pipeline 
facilities where operating responsibility transfers from a

[[Page 65864]]

production operator to a transportation operator.
    Purpose: We remind all operators of natural gas and hazardous 
liquid pipelines located on the Outer Continental Shelf of the 
September 15, 1998, deadline to durably mark the specific points at 
which operating responsibility transfers from a producing operator to a 
transporting operator, or, if it is not practicable to durably mark 
this transfer point, to depict the transfer point on a schematic 
maintained near the transfer point.
    Operators must meet all of the following criteria to be affected by 
this rule:

    (1) Operating responsibility must transfer from a producer to a 
transporter;
    (2) The transfer must take place on the Outer Continental Shelf; 
and
    (3) The producer must be upstream from the transporter.

    Pipelines that do not meet these criteria continue to be subject to 
the provisions of 49 CFR Parts 192.1(b)(1) and 195.1(b)(5) that state 
these Parts do not apply upstream from the outlet flange of each 
facility where hydrocarbons are produced or where produced hydrocarbons 
are first separated, dehydrated, or otherwise processed, whichever 
facility is farther downstream. Any proposed amendments to these 
regulations will be initially announced through publication of the 
Department of Transportation Semi-Annual Regulatory Agenda in the 
Federal Register and afforded full public participation through 
subsequent publication in the Federal Register of a notice of proposed 
rulemaking and request for comments.

    Issued in Washington, D.C. on November 24, 1998.
Richard B. Felder,
Associate Administrator for Pipeline Safety.
[FR Doc. 98-31780 Filed 11-27-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-60-P