Enbridge shuts oil pipeline after leak; reroutes supply
Reuters, Sun Jan 10, 2010
* Oil supplies rerouted after 440,000 bpd Line 2b halted
* Investigating leak in North Dakota after 3,000 bbl spill (Adds background,
details throughout)
NEW YORK, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Enbridge Energy Partners LP shut down
one leg of the main pipeline delivering Canadian crude to the United States
after discovering a leak, but said it was rerouting supplies via other
lines.
Enbridge, which operates crude oil and natural gas transportation systems in
the United States, said it had shut down Line 2b of the Enbridge Lakehead
Pipeline System. Line 2b has a capacity of 440,000 barrels per day,
equivalent to about one-quarter the total throughput on Lakehead.
It said it was cleaning up a leak it had discovered late on Friday in North
Dakota. An initial spill estimate of about 3,000 barrels, or 126,000
gallons, of light crude oil was reported to federal and state regulatory
authorities.
While damaged pipelines can usually be repaired relatively quickly, the
regulatory issues surrounding oil spills can prove trickier to resolve. The
Enbridge spill is around half the size of the biggest ever spill on Alaska's
sensitive North Slope, in 2006, which landed operator BP with fines and
probation.
The leak was located in Pembina County, North Dakota on Friday night, and
the pipeline was immediately shut down, Enbridge said, adding that water and
wildlife had not been affected.
The cause of the leak is under investigation, it said.
Line 2b runs from Cromer, Manitoba, to Superior, Wisconsin. The segment of
Line 2b between Cromer and Clearbrook, Minn. likely will remain out of
service through Monday, it said.
The 1,900-mile Lakehead System, the U.S. portion of the world's longest
petroleum pipeline running from the big oil fields in Western Canada as far
south as Oklahoma, serves around two-thirds of the refinery demand in
Minnesota and the greater Chicago area, as well as Ontario.
With recent expansions, it also pumps crude as far as Cushing, Oklahoma, the
delivery point for the benchmark U.S. crude oil futures contract. It carries
about 70 percent of all the Western Canada crude that's exported to the
United States.
For more information about the pipeline click:
here. Oil
that was designated for transportation on Line 2b is being moved on other
Enbridge pipelines that parallel Line 2b until service is restored on that
pipeline, Enbridge said.
Line 2b, from Clearbrook to Superior, Wisc., is continuing to move volumes
sourced from Enbridge's North Dakota System as well as re-routed volumes
from upstream of Cromer on Line 2b, it said. (Reporting by
Paritosh Bansal; Editing by
Bernard Orr)
