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GAO-24-106444 1 (2024-01-18)

handle is hein.gao/gaopxe0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Why This Matters Oil and gas pipeline operators have installed at least 384,000 miles of onshore gathering pipelines across the United States. Gathering lines carry natural gas, crude oil, and other hazardous liquids from production wells to processing facilities, refineries, or transmission pipelines. Many are located on federal lands and were installed decades ago. Of the approximately 650 million acres of federal lands, 95 percent are managed by the Department of Agriculture's Forest Service or the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), or National Park Service (NPS). These agencies oversee most of the oil and gas operations on federal lands. Such operations include gathering line decommissioning-the process that pipeline operators should follow, after oil and gas production has ended, to ensure any remaining gathering lines are safe and to restore the land to its natural state. Some stakeholders have raised concerns about potential environmental or safety risks that gathering lines on federal lands could pose if not decommissioned properly. We were asked to review issues related to decommissioning oil and gas gathering lines on federal lands. This report examines the risks associated with gathering lines that are not decommissioned properly or in a timely manner and how agencies oversee decommissioning of gathering lines on federal lands. Key Takeaways . If pipeline operators do not decommission gathering lines properly or in a timely manner, they could pose various safety and environmental risks, including spills, emissions, and explosions. It is unknown how many gathering lines are on federal lands or the extent to which operators have properly decommissioned them because agencies have limited data and have carried out limited oversight of decommissioning. Limited oversight can lead to orphaned gathering lines-those without any identifiable responsible parties. In such cases, the federal government may have to step in to manage and pay for decommissioning. To strengthen federal oversight of gathering lines on federal lands, we recommend that agencies develop plans to improve data collection for oversight purposes, further specify decommissioning timing requirements in some cases, and identify gathering lines presenting the greatest safety, environmental, or fiscal risks to prioritize. Page 1 GAO-24-106444 Oil and Gas Pipeline Decommissioning Page 1 GAO-24-106444 Oil and Gas Pipeline Decommissioning

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