Nov 29, 2007 6:59 pm US/Central
2 Killed In Minn. Pipeline Blast Identified
CLEARBROOK, Minn. (AP) ―
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The blast and oil spill appeared to be self-contained and the ensuing fire was expected to burn itself out, according to the sheriff's department.
Farmers Independent Newspaper
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Farmers Independent Newspaper
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Farmers Independent Newspaper
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Farmers Independent Newspaper
The oil pipeline explosion that killed two workers and caused oil prices to spike on Thursday can be traced back to a pinhole leak first repaired three weeks ago.
The fire was extinguished Thursday morning, and oil prices ended the day just slightly higher after it became clear that the Enbridge Energy pipeline would come back on line quickly.
Clearwater County Sheriff Mike Erickson said the fire burned an area a half-block wide and 100 feet long. Nearby residents were evacuated from the area, about 215 miles northwest of Minneapolis, because of the thick black smoke. All but one were back in their homes by Thursday afternoon.
The heat was so intense that the workers' bodies were not recovered until 10 hours after the explosion. They were identified by Enbridge on Thursday as Dave Mussati Jr. and Steve Arnovich, both contract workers from its Superior, Wis. office.
"It's a call I've always feared. It's a very black day for our whole company," said Richard Bird, Enbridge's vice president for liquids pipelines.
The pinhole leak was fixed with a repair sleeve earlier this month. On Wednesday, workers shut down the 34-inch pipeline to remove the 11-foot section that included the pinhole and sleeve. They replaced it with a new section of pipeline, but oil apparently leaked at a section where that joined the old line, said Leon Zupan, Enbridge's vice president of operations.
The work would have been frigid. It was 11 degrees but the wind would have made it feel like 5 below zero. Mussati and Arnovich were in a vehicle about 20 feet away from the site of the work when the explosion happened, Zupan said.
Enbridge spokesman Larry Springer said the company's metallurgists wanted to analyze the section to better understand why it leaked. He said electronic tools called "smart pigs" were put inside the pipeline in 2006 looking for dents and metal loss. "There were no problems found in that area where the leak occurred," he said.
Houston-based Enbridge Energy Inc.'s pipeline carries crude oil from Saskatchewan through Minnesota to the Chicago area.
It carries roughly 16 percent of U.S. crude imports, and oil prices shot up more than $4 early Thursday when word of the fire first reached oil markets. But three of the four lines were operating by Thursday afternoon. The company said the fourth line, where the fire occurred, would probably be usable again in two or three days.
"Nothing is going to be restarted until we're absolutely sure it's safe to be operated," Springer said.
The crude is used to make several kinds of fuel, such as gasoline and home heating oil. Bird said deliveries to refineries were not affected, and that the pipeline was running at 80 percent of its capacity even without the line involved in the fire.
County Attorney Jeanine Brand, who was acting as a spokeswoman for the sheriff's department, said Clearbrook residents had not given much thought to safety concerns about the pipeline.
"There's risks in many industries. I don't think people have talked much about the pipeline until now," she said.
Company officials said the frozen ground will make it easier to clean up oil that leaked during the fire. They said vacuum trucks would remove the oil.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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