Federal regulators propose safety rules for small and mobile LNG plants

Federal regulators on Tuesday proposed rewriting the safety rules for liquefied natural gas plants, including the first specific requirements for small permanent plants and updated rules for mobile ones.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration's LNG rules haven't changed since 2006. They lean largely on a 2001 industry standard from the National Fire Protection Association, which the agency says is now seven editions out of date. The proposal would adopt the 2026 edition.

Mobile and temporary LNG facilities went from eight in 2004 to 43 last year, the agency said, and small-scale LNG increasingly serves niche markets such as off-grid power and oil and gas drilling equipment. In Alaska, LNG is already trucked to Fairbanks.

PHMSA says small plants carry lower risks than large ones and should be regulated that way. Congress ordered the agency to write rules for them in 2016. Under the proposal, a mobile unit could operate for up to six months before needing a special permit.

The proposal would also require operators to model a full rupture of the hoses used to load and unload LNG trucks, whatever their size. That's already agency guidance. PHMSA cited a fatal September 2023 incident in Toppenish, Washington, where a transfer hose detached as a truck pulled away from an LNG facility.

The agency estimates the changes would save about $98 million a year, though it said many of the savings and some of the costs couldn't be put in dollars.

Comments are due Jan. 4 at the federal docket.