Fire shuts most of main Canada-U.S. oil pipeline

Reuters ^ | Thu Nov 29, 2007 | Bill Berkrot

[Royal Wulff]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Enbridge Inc (ENB.TO: Quote, Profile , Research) has shut down four of its main pipelines that supply over 2 million barrels per day (bpd) of Canadian oil to the U.S. Midwest due to an explosion and a fire in Minnesota, the company said on Wednesday.

[Royal Wulff]

Oil up $4 to $94.52 right now.

[LegendHasIt]

Oh Great...

Accident or Sabotage?

Either way, I wish I had topped off the tank on the big truck yesterday.

[Royal Wulff]

If it is down for a week, major problems for midwest.

[knarf]

Right now, any comment beyond "not good" would be sensational speculation.

The article gives no details, but Canada's ability to supply us appears to be cut in half for an indefinate time, and two workers are missing.

Not good.

[Westlander]

Gas $3.10 in SE Michigan now. Probably $3.50 by next weekend. $4.00 in Spring when they shutdown the refineries to switch over to Summer blend. IMHO

[PGalt]

Thanks for posting. Interesting.

[Royal Wulff]

The two workers are dead.

Accident caused by a leak, apparently.

See here

[Drago]

Posted here at 8:30pm PST:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1932092/posts
Thanks.

[Westlander]

Update
http://investing.reuters.co.uk/news/articleinvesting.aspx?view=cn&symbol=ENB.TO&storyid=69662+29-Nov-2007+RTRS&WTmodLoc=InvArt-R4-FactBox-9&type=qcna

[knarf]

Thanx .. that was a more detailed report.

Still ..

Not good.

[Westlander]

http://wcco.com/local/pipeline.explosion.northern.2.598268.html

[BlabItGrabIt]

"Accident or Sabotage?"

Been following oil speculation long??

The headlines come out that the market is saturated with oil and thus prices drop.

After going down, a crisis somewhere happens and crude skyrockets. This is predictable as sunrising and setting. And, this MSM will declare this an accident.

[pnh102]

After going down, a crisis somewhere happens and crude skyrockets. This is predictable as sunrising and setting.

No kidding. It seems that every time a screw falls off of an oil platform somewhere, the price of gas rises by 50 cents a gallon.

[Wiz]

Accident? Terrorism?

[SMARTY]

How timely!

[mewzilla]

More....

Fire at Major US Oil Pipeline Kills 2

Prayers for them.

[mewzilla]

Oil prices soar as blaze hits pipeline feeding US

[IronJack]

More extortion on the way ...

[RSmithOpt]

SO true because NYMEX wholesale gasoline had dropped over 25 cents per gallon the last 4 days. “An awful convenient accident”, IMHO for them greedy speculators. They can cut the pipe and go around the fire with a new temporary section of pipe if they want in about 5 days. Shouldn’t need more than 1 mile of pipe to do it.

[Former Proud Canadian]

From one report:

Because oil is stored in company stations along the line and at refineries, the pipelines could be shuttered for several days without causing disruptions in oil supplies to the Midwest, she said.

[Westlander]

http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1580513.html

[RSmithOpt]

So, it seems to me they should be back on line within 3-5 days if a fitting is all that has to be replaced. Thanks for the link.

[NRG1973]

CNBC just reported that the fires are out and that 2 of the 4 pipelines have gone back online. I don’t know how long it will take to repair the 2 damaged pipelines though.

The really bad news from this incident is the loss of life of 2 Enbridge workers.

[Leo Farnsworth]

Buy the rumor, sell the fact.

[thackney]

Only if there was no instrumentation or actuated valves in the same area. It could be much more substantial. The pipe damage itself could require pressure testing the line prior to putting it back into operation. That would require pigging the line to remove all remaining product, pressuring it up, likely with water for a hydrotest, removing the water through multiple pigging operation before reintroducing product.

[RSmithOpt]

Thanks, Thackney. Even though DOT regulated, the repairs have to been done right, even a temporary line splice. Just one of them things that it had to let loose. Sounds as though the line was not hydro tested to start with after the initial coupling replacement as that piggin’ the product, hydro testing, then piggin’ the water takes some time and money. It’s a shame 2 guys bought it just doing their jobs. Pipeline maintenance (done correctly) is expensive regardless, and costly, especially when we are near capacity as it is and a transport system is off-line.

[thackney]

This is definitely a location of squeezing capacity. Enbridge is building several pipeline to help increase the capacity related to the movement of oil between those markets served by this pipeline.

[thackney]

Many repairs after leaks do not require pigging and hydrotest. Even if a section is cut out and a new fitting or pipe is replaced, only the replaced section needs to be hydrotested and typically done at the manufacture. Installation welds then are X-rayed and would sufficient.

But if the existing pipewall is exposed to heavy fire for some duration there may now be need to rehydrotest the pipeline section.

[RightWhale]

NYMEX crude was up $4 but now is up 0.27, which means the actual effect wore off once the morning caffeine wore off.

[thackney]

Still falling this morning in overseas trading:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aBErflqrJNxI&refer=home