Posted on 11/01/2013 6:01:49 AM PDT by thackney
A lightning strike may have caused a pipeline rupture that spilled more than 20,000 barrels of oil in a North Dakota wheat field, federal regulators said in a report issued Thursday.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said a preliminary investigation of the Tesoro Corp. pipeline break “points to a strong electrical discharge as the cause of the failure.”
Damon Hill, a spokesman for the agency, said a final determination as to the exact cause has not been made. The agency based its initial findings on mechanical and metallurgical analysis of a section of the 6-inch diameter steel pipeline that runs underground about 35 miles from Tioga to a rail facility outside of Columbus, near the Canadian border, he said.
“It’s possible it may have been a lighting strike,” Hill said. “It’s possible it could have struck the pipeline or another conduit near the pipeline, such as a fence.”
Tesoro has said the hole in the 20-year-old pipeline was a quarter-inch in diameter. North Dakota regulators previously had said the hole may have been caused by corrosion.
“The cause of the electrical discharge is under investigation,” Tesoro spokeswoman Elizabeth Watters said Thursday.
The break in the pipeline happened in a remote area, and officials said no water was contaminated or wildlife hurt.
The preliminary results of the break were published in a safety order issued Thursday that sets conditions for Tesoro to restart the pipeline. The order requires the company to perform frequent aerial and ground inspections and install additional leak detection equipment.
The North Dakota Health Department was told about the spill on Sept. 29, after a farmer whose combine’s tires were coated in crude discovered oil gurgling from the ground in his field in the northwest corner of the state. Although the state initially thought just 750 barrels of oil was involved, it turned out to be one of the largest spills in North Dakota history — an estimated 20,600 barrels covering 7.3 acres of land, or about the size of seven football fields.
One barrel of oil is 42 gallons, and the amount that spilled near Tioga would fill more than 30 rail tanker cars.
Tesoro estimated it would cost $4 million to clean up the spill.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said sections of the old pipe were sent to a lab for analysis. The agency said new pipe has been installed and tested, and pressure and flow detection systems have been installed.
In addition to the corrective measures included in the safety order, the agency has required Tesoro to submit a restart plan for the entire pipeline segment. Hill said his agency could allow Tesoro to restart the pipeline before the final investigation is done, if Tesoro meets corrective measures.
Watters said the San Antonio-based company does not have a timeline to restart the pipeline.
“We’re continuing to work on getting restart approval,” she said.
You don’t know much about trees and the relationship to oil was just plain silly.
Have you ever thought about taking a class in reading comprehension?
If not you should.
You make less and less sense with each comment.
Logic 101 would might benefit you. You made a bizarre comment, trying to connect dead trees, hit by lightning to an oil spill that may have been caused by lightning. Then you proceeded to try to explain it.
Wow, that is a lot of oil. Seven and a half acres. How did that go unnoticed for so long? There is no excuse for that. It makes the whole industry look bad.
No I didn’t, which is why you need reading comprehension.
Large fields of crops are often not patrolled. With a good crop cover, it could be well hidden.
But, I read in another article that there were no crops in those fields. Is that not true?
I was thinking later that this new explanation of a lightning strike or some other electrical event could suggest that they suspect some kind of sabotage. Is that possible? They also mention a nearby fence, was the fence electrified?
I have been the lead Electrical and Instrumentation design engineer for multiple pipelines and associated pump/compressor stations in the US. I have never seen such connected to the pipeline itself. Those are used for above ground items associated with the pipeline like a compressor or controls building. The pipeline will have electrically isolating material where it comes out of the ground, gasket for the flanges and sleeves/washers for the bolts.
If a pipe line leaks would there be a difference in temperature ? Is it possible to put cheap temperature monitors along the pipe lines to detect a change in temperature ?
The temperature inside the pipe typically will match that outside the pipe over time.
Have they ruled out sabotage from greenies ?
I have posted what I have found. Never saw that discussed as a possibility. It is tough to sabotage a pipeline from below grade without disturbing the soil.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.