Category: Pipelines

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) formed a Pipeline Infrastructure Task Force to help state agencies, natural gas producers, and communities closely work together as thousands of miles of pipelines are proposed to move gas and related products from wellheads to markets. The Pipeline Infrastructure Task Force (PITF) also will include representatives from the state legislature, federal and local governments, and environmental organizations, he said in announcing the group’s formation on May 27. “We need to work with the industry to make sure that the positive economic benefits of Pennsylvania’s rich natural resources can more quickly be realized in a responsible way,” Wolf said. “This taskforce is part of our commitment to seeing the natural gas industry succeed.” He named John Quigley, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s acting secretary, chairman of PITF. “Over the next decade, we could see the construction of as many as 25,000 miles of gathering […]

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Volunteers clean up the oil spill at Haskell’s Beach in Goleta, Calif., on Wednesday. Workers on Thursday removed a section of a crude-oil pipeline that ruptured and spilled more than 100,000 gallons of oil off the Santa Barbara County, Calif., coast last week. The piece of pipe will be sent to an independent laboratory in Ohio to determine what caused it to fail, according to a spokeswoman for the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. The agency ordered and supervised the removal and will station an inspector at the lab to observe the metallurgical testing. The pipeline will be shipped in two segments—one 19 feet long and the other 31 feet long, said PHMSA spokeswoman Artealia Gilliard, adding that the amount of time it takes to conduct the tests and analysis can vary. “There’s no definite timeline,” she said. She declined to provide details on the condition of […]

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Oil soaked kelp and oil sheen in Santa Barbara on May 20, 2015. Photographer: Brian van der Brug /Los Angeles Times via Getty Images A pipeline the oil market had all but forgotten resurfaced like a painful memory last week, spilling 500 barrels of heavy oil into the Pacific Ocean. Line 901. A quarter century ago, it was a pipeline full of promise. Today, it’s full of — not much, really. Before it leaked on May 19, pouring viscous crude into the waters off California’s coast, the 24-inch line was schlepping 28,800 barrels a day, mostly to a small refinery near Santa Barbara, at less than a fifth of its capacity. Graphic: California’s Oil Spill It’s a relic from another time, an era that peaked in the 1990’s when drillers dove into the waters off California’s coast chasing billions of barrels lying beneath the ocean floor. The state was […]

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1 of 6 Workers continue the cleanup along Refugio Beach as efforts continue to remove the oil that has spilled an estimated 100,000 gallons off the Santa Barbara County coast in Goleta, California on May 22, 2015. A unified command center established for the spill said the worst-case estimate is that 2,500 barrels of oil was released from a pipeline operated by Plains All American. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo SANTA BARBARA, Calif., May 27 (UPI) — Plains All American defended pipeline infrastructure in California after last week’s spill, saying automatic shutoff valves were not the best safety option. Plains is working with state, local and federal regulators to remove part of its Line 901 from a region near Refugio State Beach in Santa Barbara. A unified command center established for the spill said the worst-case estimate is that 2,500 barrels of oil was released from the […]

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ENLARGE Animal-care experts at SeaWorld San Diego attend to an oiled sea lion found Friday at Refugio State Beach near Goleta, Calif. Photo: Associated Press The amount of oil believed spilled from a ruptured pipeline off the Santa Barbara County, Calif., coast last week has been revised downward, as cleanup crews worked through the Memorial Day weekend mopping up crude off of eight miles of affected beaches. The pipeline’s owner, Plains All American Pipeline PAA -1.34 % LP, now estimates that the maximum amount spilled when the rupture was detected May 19 is 101,000 gallons, or 4,200 gallons lower than previous estimates officials of a state-federal joint unified command have announced. As of noon Monday, a total of 10,060 gallons of an oil-water mix created by the crude that reached the Pacific Ocean had been skimmed off of coastal waters and beaches, said Tom McKenzie, a U.S. Coast Guard […]

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SANTA BARBARA Government prosecutors are investigating the company at the center of the California oil spill for possible criminal sanctions, according to the district attorney of Santa Barbara – a city that helped spawn the modern environmental movement. Perhaps one of the worst places on Earth for a crude oil leak, Santa Barbara is a beautiful sun-kissed coastal city rich with wildlife, environmental lawyers and wealthy liberal activists. This week it is also crawling with federal, state and local investigators and attorneys searching for grounds for a possible criminal prosecution against the Texas company whose ruptured pipe fouled beaches and offshore waters. "I am working with the federal government and the attorney general’s office to look into potential criminal, and/or civil prosecution," said Joyce Dudley, Santa Barbara’s district attorney. In an email sent to Reuters on Friday, Tami Kelly, a spokeswoman for Plains All American Pipeline, the Texas-based company […]

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LOS ANGELES Owners of the oil pipeline that ruptured in California this week must take numerous corrective measures, including an in-depth analysis of factors contributing to the spill, before they can restart the line, federal safety officials said on Friday. The corrective action order issued on Thursday by the U.S. Transportation Department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration is not regarded as a disciplinary enforcement sanction against the company, Texas-based Plains Pipeline LP, officials said. But it requires Plains to perform a detailed and lengthy list of actions before the oil line resumes operations, starting with removal of the failed pipe for metallurgical examination, purging the line of remaining petroleum and independent review of inspection results. It also requires a "root-cause analysis" of the spill, exploring not only the direct cause of the failure, but "every contributing factor" that may have played a part, including any safety compliance issues, said […]

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AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill Buy AP Photo Reprints Multimedia A year after the Gulf oil spill, problems remain Interactives Producers Tap Old Wells in Search of Oil The oil pipeline leak that fouled a stretch of California coastline this week reflects a troubling trend in the nation’s infrastructure: As U.S. oil production has soared, so has the number of pipeline accidents. Since 2009, the annual number of significant accidents on oil and petroleum pipelines has shot up by almost 60 percent, roughly matching the rise in U.S. crude oil production, according an analysis of federal data by The Associated Press. Nearly two-thirds of the leaks during that time have been linked to corrosion or material, welding and equipment failures, problems often associated with older pipelines, although they also can occur in newer ones, too. Other leaks were blamed on natural disasters or human error, such as a backhoe striking […]

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ENLARGE Workers clean oil Friday from the shoreline of Refugio State Beach in Goleta, Calif. On Friday, federal regulators ordered Plains All American Pipeline LP, the operator of the pipeline responsible for the spill, to determine the causes of the pipeline’s failure. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Officials at the U.S. Transportation Department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the agency responsible for oversight of the line, said Friday the company must fulfill all of the requirements of the corrective order, issued Thursday, before the line can restart pumping oil. The order requires the company to determine the cause of the spill, and test the entire line for any conditions similar to the cause of the rupture. To do so, Plains All American must empty and purge the pipeline, and conduct a physical and analytical review that includes inspections of various engineering records and company data, among other materials. The […]

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HOUSTON The state of Georgia’s top transportation official has denied Kinder Morgan Inc’s request for a key permit to build a $1.12 billion gasoline and distillate pipeline through the southeast part of the state. In a letter dated Monday, Georgia’s Department of Transportation Commissioner Russell McMurray said he had determined that Kinder’s proposed 360-mile (579 km) Palmetto Pipeline is not critical enough to allow the company to condemn property and obtain easements along its route to allow its construction. "There is substantial evidence that the construction of the proposed pipeline will not constitute a public convenience and necessity," McMurray said in the letter addressed to an attorney representing Kinder in the matter, a copy of which was received by Reuters. Kinder Morgan was "evaluating all options to move forward with the project," Ron McClain, the company’s head of products pipelines, said in a statement on Tuesday. The company did […]

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