Shakespeare - Macbeth Act 5, scene 1
Posted on 12/09/2022 3:00:48 AM PST by ransomnote
Dec 8 (Reuters) - Canada's TC Energy shut its Keystone pipeline in the United States after more than 14,000 barrels of crude oil spilled into a creek in Kansas, making it one of the largest crude spills in the United States in nearly a decade.
The cause of the leak, which occurred in Kansas about 20 miles (32 km) south of a key junction in Steele City, Nebraska, is unknown. It is the third spill of several thousand barrels of crude on the pipeline since it first opened in 2010.
The 622,000 barrel-per-day Keystone line is a critical artery shipping heavy Canadian crude from Alberta to refiners in the U.S. Midwest and the Gulf Coast. It is unclear how long the closure will last.
SNIP
Steele City is roughly the junction where Keystone splits, with one segment moving crude to Illinois refineries and the other carrying oil south to Oklahoma and the Gulf Coast.
If the spill is located south of the junction, TC may be able to quickly restart the segment to Illinois, RBC analyst Robert Kwan said in a note.
Past shutdowns have generally lasted about two weeks, but this could last longer as it involves a water body, Kwan said.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
The last people I would suspect of wanting to damage energy infrastructure are MAGA types.
Intentional sabotage.
I think your math is too optimistic.
14,000 barrels would be a square of 118 barrels by 118 barrels.
A 42 gallon barrel is more than one foot in diameter, and at least 3 feet high.
That would be at least a quarter acre - and three feet deep.
According to the conversion calculator that I clicked on, 14,000 barrels is 1669366.594 litres. That’s 1669.366594 cubic metre.
I do see my error now.
1669.366594 cubic metres is 58953.13 cubic feet.
Assuming a 4” puddle, that leaves a sq footage of 176859.4 sqft.
That’s about 420ft by 420 feet.
About 36 times larger than my original estimate. It’s still hardly a disaster, imo. It still can be cleaned up almost as fast.
they’ll slurp that up in no time...no big deal
Shakespeare - Macbeth Act 5, scene 1
Exactly what I was thinking. A drop in pressure should automatically cause valves upstream to close, thus cutting off a major spill.
The 622,000 barrel-per-day Keystone line is a critical artery shipping heavy Canadian crude from Alberta to refiners in the U.S. Midwest and the Gulf Coast.
Didn’t Biden shut down the Keystone pipeline? How is it still operating?
So, how is it still in operation?
What exactly am I missing here?
How many barrels of oil will the pipeline hold between point A and point B? Could have pumped 4,000 barrels, pump shuts off, 10,000 more barrels drain via gravity.
I'm always amazed at how much water comes out of a 1/2" cpvc plumbing pipe when I have to open the system for a modification/repair. How many feet in diameter is an oil pipeline? A barrel is less than 2 feet. Increasing diameter increases area exponentially.
Pi x R2(radius squared) gives you area.
2 foot diameter - 1 x 1 x 3.14 = 3.14 cu ft
4 foot diameter - 2 x 2 x 3.14 = 12.56 cu ft
8 foot diameter - 4 x 4 x 3.14 = 50.26 cu ft
16 foot diameter - 16 x 16 x 3.14 = 803.84 cu ft
830.84 x 100 ft length = 80384 cu ft
80384 cu ft = 601314.07792 gallons
601314.08 gal / 55 = 1096.619636364 barrels per 100 foot of 16' dia pipe.
5280 feet in a mile. Just a few miles of 8 or 10 ft dia pipeline could easily gravity drain 14,000 barrels.
no like it is sabotage or anything. Nice job investigative press corps.
Lol... Being an interior construction kinda guy that hit home!! And you do have a valid point but as stated, and they are correct pressure trips would shut down that system, including closing all valves(automatic) anywhere near that pressure drop. If these mechanisms were not in place, and the oil just spilled out the hole.... 14,000 barrels worth, well the fault lies soley with the engineering and architecture!!
As stated by another freeper and they are correct,. **
If not, then the carbon chains surely do.
Dead envirowackos don’t sabotage pipelines
Has to be far-right wingers protesting drag queen story hours.
I have no idea at what increment they put a shut off valve in. This thing's in two countries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_Pipeline
Wikipedo is about useless anymore though I did find out it's only 30 inches in diameter. Article is light on technical aspects but long on political/climate aspects.
Analysis of the time needed to shut down the pipeline shows that response to a leak at a river crossing could conservatively take more than ten times longer than the 11 minutes and 30 seconds that TransCanada assumes. (After the June 2010 spill of more than 800,000 US gallons (3,000 m3) of crude oil into a tributary of the Kalamazoo River, an Enbridge tar sands pipeline—a 30-inch (760 mm) pipe compared to the 36-inch (910 mm) Keystone XL—was not completely shut down for 12 hours.)"
"Realistic calculations yield worst-case spill estimates of more than 180,000 barrels (29,000 m3) in the Nebraska Sandhills above the Ogallala Aquifer, more than 160,000 barrels (25,000 m3) of crude oil at the Yellowstone River crossings, more than 140,000 barrels (22,000 m3) at the Platte River crossing and more than 120,000 barrels (19,000 m3) at the Missouri River crossing."
Looks like 14,000 barrels ain't half bad
Biden shut down the construction of Keystone II.
This is Keystone I.
The second one was going to basically parallel the first one. The objective is to move more Alberta oil eventually down to LA/TX where there are refineries with not only the ability to breakdown that type of heavy crude, but also the excess capacity to increase production.
By moving the oil via pipeline you reduce the cost to transport/barrel. It is much cheaper per barrel to ship in a pipeline than it is by train car or any other transport means. It is also generally much safer for the environment.
By reducing the cost of transport, you INCREASE the NET return for the oil FOB Alberta. IF you increase the return FOB Alberta they dig more oil sands out of the ground in AB. The price for Alberta oil at times sells for a significant discount to other crude in the world. A few years ago when Trump was POTUS, it was selling FOB Alberta for $18/barrel. This is because there is only ONE pipeline heading west to Vancouver. They are in the process of doubling the size of this pipeline. The pipelines heading south or east are all filled to capacity.
The Greenies HATE oil sands production. They compare it to hitting baby seals over the head with clubs.
They think that scraping the ground in northern Alberta and processing that oil sand is the biggest sin in the world against Mother ERF. Building the second Keystone pipeline would have increased this practice. Therefore, it had to be stopped by any means possible.
Math is raciss.
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