We are the Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) within the U. S. Department of Transportation, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
OPS is the primary federal regulatory agency responsible for ensuring the safe, reliable, and environmentally sound operation of America's energy pipelines. We develop and implement pipeline safety regulations at the federal level, and we share regulatory responsibility with the states, with whom we oversee more than two million miles of pipelines.
We are changing the way pipelines are regulated and we have new strategies that are improving the operation of pipelines as well as public and environmental safety.
We are now more mindful than ever of the roles that others play in helping to ensure the safe, sustained flow of energy products across our country. We are actively partnering with state and local officials, first responders, excavators and the general public - among others - to "get the word out" on pipeline safety. All of us, in one way or another, are pipeline safety stakeholders.
On this website you will find information that you can use right now - regardless of your stakeholder interest -- to help ensure pipeline safety in your community. To begin, please select the stakeholder tab above that best describes you or select a topic from the menu on the left.
If you don't have time to browse our website you can follow this link to download a printable brochure about OPS.
Be sure to come back and browse when you have more time.
Following are some recent items of interest related to pipeline safety. Please visit http://ops.dot.gov for additional What's New and event information.
What's New
- PHMSA Publishes Final Rule for Increasing Maximum Allowable Operating Pressure on Gas Transmission Pipelines (October 2008)
- PHMSA Issues Guide for Strengthening State Damage Prevention Programs (September 2008)
- PHMSA Advisory Bulletin: Pipeline Safety: Notice to Operators on the Regulatory Status of Direct Sales Pipelines (May 2008)
- PHMSA Advisory Bulletin: Pipeline Safety: Installation of Excess Flow Valves into Gas Service Lines (June 2008)
- June 2008 Issue of Community Assistance and Technical Services Connection Available
- Workshops on Operator Public Awareness Programs
- Report - Virginia Pilot Project - Incorporating GPS Technology to Enhance One-Call Damage Prevention - Phase I: Electronic White-lining
- Pipelines and Informed Planning Alliance (PIPA)
- PHMSA Publishes Final Rule to Relax Applicability of Public Awareness Regulations to Certain Gas Disgribution Operators (December 2007)
- NTSB Study on Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition Systems in Liquid Pipelines (November 2005)
- NASFM Advisory Bulletin: Response to a Natural Gas Pipeline Rupture Near Occupied Structures