On December 19, 2016, PHMSA issued an interim final rule (IFR) to establish for the first time  minimum federal safety standards for underground natural gas storage facilities.  The rule was issued in response to the 2015 Aliso Canyon storage leak that lasted almost four months,  and a subsequent Congressional mandate to issue federal standards for underground storage.  Among other things, the IFR incorporated by reference (thereby making them mandatory) two American Petroleum Institute (API) Recommended Practices (RPs) regarding underground natural gas storage in salt caverns and reservoirs: (1) API RP 1170, “Design and Operation of Solution-mined Salt Caverns Used for Natural Gas Storage,” (July 2015); and (2) API RP 1171, “Functional Integrity of Natural Gas Storage in Depleted Hydrocarbon Reservoirs and Aquifer Reservoirs,” (Sept. 2015).  API finalized both of those RPs in response to the Aliso Canyon incident.
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