enbridge pipeline leak 500 000 litres

[downward dog]

Enbridge shuts line on Canada-US oil route after leak

Stocks

* Oil supplies rerouted after 440,000 bpd Line 2b halted

* Investigating leak in North Dakota after 3,000 bbl spill (Adds background, details throughout)

NEW YORK, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Enbridge Energy Partners LP (EEP.N) shut down one leg of the main pipeline delivering Canadian crude to the United States after discovering a leak, but said it was rerouting supplies via other lines.

Enbridge, which operates crude oil and natural gas transportation systems in the United States, said it had shut down Line 2b of the Enbridge Lakehead Pipeline System. Line 2b has a capacity of 440,000 barrels per day, equivalent to about one-quarter the total throughput on Lakehead.

It said it was cleaning up a leak it had discovered late on Friday in North Dakota. An initial spill estimate of about 3,000 barrels, or 126,000 gallons, of light crude oil was reported to federal and state regulatory authorities.

While damaged pipelines can usually be repaired relatively quickly, the regulatory issues surrounding oil spills can prove trickier to resolve. The Enbridge spill is around half the size of the biggest ever spill on Alaska's sensitive North Slope, in 2006, which landed operator BP with fines and probation.

The leak was located in Pembina County, North Dakota on Friday night, and the pipeline was immediately shut down, Enbridge said, adding that water and wildlife had not been affected.

The cause of the leak is under investigation, it said.

Line 2b runs from Cromer, Manitoba, to Superior, Wisconsin. The segment of Line 2b between Cromer and Clearbrook, Minn. likely will remain out of service through Monday, it said.

The 1,900-mile Lakehead System, the U.S. portion of the world's longest petroleum pipeline running from the big oil fields in Western Canada as far south as Oklahoma, serves around two-thirds of the refinery demand in Minnesota and the greater Chicago area, as well as Ontario.

With recent expansions, it also pumps crude as far as Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for the benchmark U.S. crude oil futures contract. It carries about 70 percent of all the Western Canada crude that's exported to the United States.

For more information about the pipeline click: here mt=5 Oil that was designated for transportation on Line 2b is being moved on other Enbridge pipelines that parallel Line 2b until service is restored on that pipeline, Enbridge said.

Line 2b, from Clearbrook to Superior, Wisc., is continuing to move volumes sourced from Enbridge's North Dakota System as well as re-routed volumes from upstream of Cromer on Line 2b, it said. (Reporting by Paritosh Bansal; Editing by Bernard Orr)

[oc ender]

hmmm,wonder what nutbar blew this one up,HEY WIEBO,WHERE YA" TO BOY?OH YA" THEY WOULDN"T LET HIM CROSS THE POUROUS LINE WOULD THEY?....IS THIS MY OUTSIDE VOICE??? >:D

[geec]

Although, oc ender, you are clearly being facetious, the seriousness of such a leak should not be diminished by flippant commentary.
Exactly how much will "the multi national pipeline corporation" have to write off, as an operating expense, when all the salmon in the Skeena are dead from a pipeline leak?
The loss of our way of life will just be some line in a financial report.
Thanks for the info downward dog.