Pipelines
Queryable Shapefile Has coordinates
499,052 mapped pipeline segments, with the operator, the commodity and the diameter.
Get the data
Heads up on Original: the Commission does not publish this table on its own. It publishes All Layers by County, which this was parsed out of — so Original gets you that whole file, not just this table. Every other format is this table alone.
Free. You will be asked to confirm an email address before the files are built — that is the only gate, and it is there so we can tell you when a large export is ready.
What this is
Every pipeline segment RRC maps, as lines, with the attributes that say whose it is and what runs through it: the operator's P-5 number and name, the system and subsystem name, the T-4 permit, the diameter in inches, up to three commodity codes, and whether it is interstate.
2,058 operators across 16,257 named systems. 477,843 of the 499,052 segments -- 95.7% -- carry a P-5 number that resolves to the organisation register on this site, so a pipeline can be taken from a line on a map to a company with an address and an officer.
Geometry is stored on EPSG:4326, transformed once from the NAD27 the Commission publishes. That is the trap this data is famous for: NAD27 drawn on a modern basemap puts Texas features about 100 metres from where they belong and nothing looks wrong. The transform is checked rather than assumed -- RRC's well layer publishes each point on both datums, so the reprojection is compared against arithmetic the Commission did itself, and agrees to a median of 2 metres.
The shapefile packages are still mirrored whole, under the five 'Layers by County' datasets, for anyone who wants the Commission's own bytes.
What you can do with it
Find who owns the line crossing a tract, map an operator's whole gathering system, or find every gas line over eight inches within a county.
Gotchas
A segment is not a pipeline. One system is many rows, and lengths have to be summed over a system rather than read off a row.
diameter is in inches and is text as published, so '2.38' and '16.00' sort as strings. Cast it if you are comparing sizes.
This is RRC's mapping, not a survey. It is not a substitute for a one-call ticket, and nothing here should be used to decide where it is safe to dig.
Record layout
28 columns.
gis_pipeline
28 columns
| # | Column | Type | RRC name | Meaning | Lookup |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
county_code
|
text | — | The three-digit county code, taken from the name of the package this row came out of. 'FED' for the federal offshore bundle, which is a real part of the statewide layer: merging only the numeric counties silently drops everything in federal waters and still looks like a complete Texas map. | — |
| 2 |
tpms_id
|
text | — | RRC's internal key for the segment in its pipeline mapping system. | — |
| 3 |
oper_link
|
text | — | RRC's internal link to the operator record. | — |
| 4 |
ops_id
|
text | — | The operator's PHMSA OPS identifier, where one is recorded. | — |
| 5 |
p5_num
|
text | — | The operator's P-5 organisation number, and the join that makes this layer useful: 477,843 of the 499,052 segments (95.7%) resolve to the P-5 organisation register on this site, so a line on a map becomes a company with an address and an officer. | — |
| 6 |
oper_nm
|
text | — | The operator's name as carried in the pipeline system. Compare against the P-5 register, which is the authoritative spelling. | — |
| 7 |
sys_nm
|
text | — | The pipeline system this segment belongs to. 16,257 distinct names; a system is many segments, so sum over it rather than reading a length off one row. | — |
| 8 |
subsys_nm
|
text | — | The subsystem, where the operator names one. | — |
| 9 |
t4permit
|
text | — | The T-4 permit under which the line operates. | — |
| 10 |
diameter
|
text | — | Nominal diameter in INCHES, as text: '2.38', '16.00'. Text as published, so it sorts as a string -- cast it before comparing sizes. | — |
| 11 |
commodity1
|
text | — | The primary commodity code carried. | — |
| 12 |
commodity2
|
text | — | A second commodity, where the line carries more than one. | — |
| 13 |
commodity3
|
text | — | A third commodity, where the line carries more than two. | — |
| 14 |
cmdty_desc
|
text | — | The commodity in words: NATURAL GAS, CRUDE OIL and the rest. | — |
| 15 |
interstate
|
text | — | Set where the line is interstate and so falls under federal as well as Commission jurisdiction. | — |
| 16 |
status_cd
|
text | — | RRC's status code for the segment. | — |
| 17 |
quality_cd
|
text | — | RRC's own confidence in how accurately the segment is mapped. The code list is not published in the package. | — |
| 18 |
systype
|
text | — | The system type code -- gathering, transmission and so on. | — |
| 19 |
county
|
text | — | The county code as the pipeline system records it, which is not always the county of the package the row came from where a line crosses a boundary. | — |
| 20 |
com_carrie
|
text | — | Set where the line is a common carrier. | — |
| 21 |
pline_id
|
text | — | The operator's own identifier for the line. | — |
| 22 |
sys_id
|
text | — | RRC's identifier for the system. | — |
| 23 |
npms_sys_i
|
text | — | The NPMS system identifier, tying the segment to the National Pipeline Mapping System. | — |
| 24 |
albers_mil
|
text | — | Length in miles as RRC computed it on an Albers projection, which is the figure to use if you want miles. | — |
| 25 |
length
|
text | — | Length as recorded in the pipeline system. | — |
| 26 |
shape_len
|
text | — | The length of the shape in the source file's own units on NAD27 degrees, as RRC computed it. Comparable between rows; not a survey measurement and not metres. | — |
| 27 |
geom
|
geometry | — | The shape, on EPSG:4326, transformed once from the NAD27 the Commission publishes. Served as WKT, which QGIS, PostGIS and ogr2ogr all read; the GeoJSON, GeoPackage, KML and Shapefile downloads are built from it. NAD27 drawn on a modern basemap is about 100 metres out, which is the reason this is transformed here rather than left to the reader. | — |
| 28 |
ingested_at
|
timestamptz | — | When the upstream pipeline last wrote this row. Not an RRC field — it is EZRRC's provenance stamp, and it is what the freshness badge is measured against. | — |
Where this comes from
- Published by
- Texas Railroad Commission — the original page
- Original format
- Shapefile ArcView shapefile — several files that must be kept together.
- RRC publishes
- Updated twice a week (Twice a week, with the county shapefile packages.)
- RRC download link
- GoAnywhere MFT
- Record layout manual
- Our table
texas.gis_pipeline
EZRRC is an independent mirror of public-domain data published by the Texas Railroad Commission. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the RRC. For any legal or regulatory purpose, verify against the official RRC release.