An explosion on a major Canadian-U.S. crude-oil pipeline has killed two maintenance workers and caused oil prices to spike more than US$3 Thursday.
Two Enbridge employees, Dave Mussati Jr., and Steve Arnovich, were performing scheduled maintenance on an underground pipeline when fumes escaped, igniting the blaze.
The Enbridge Energy Partners' pipeline ignited at 3:45 p.m. on Wednesday about five kilometres southeast of Enbridge's Clearbrook, Minnesota terminal, a company statement said.
The exact cause of the explosion has yet to be confirmed.
Denise Hamsher, a spokeswoman for Enbridge Energy, told CTV Thursday that the site has been secured.
"At the time of the incident, all of our four pipelines that exit Clearbrook were shut down, so our entire system in the U.S. serving the Midwest and Eastern Canada was shut down temporarily," she said.
- Line 2, which was unaffected by the fire, resumed operations after 3:30 a.m. on Thursday, Enbridge said in a statement.
- Line 1, shipping light crude and natural gas liquids, was restarted at 4:15 a.m.
- Line 4, a heavy crude line, was not damaged in the fire and returned to service late Thursday.
- Line 3, which was directly involved in the accident, will be shut down indefinitely. Enbridge estimates it may require two to three days to return Line 3 to service.
The accident occurred after workers had successfully replaced a segment of pipe that had a pinhole leak. When the pipeline was restarted "a fitting on the area was released," Hamsher said.
"A spray of oil occurred and that spray ignited and the people in the trench were overcome," she said.
The two employees were in their vehicles approximately 20 feet away from the excavation when the explosion occurred.
No other injuries were reported, but local residents were evacuated due to billowing black smoke that filled the area.
Enbridge President and CEO Patrick Daniel said in a statement Thursday that he was personally saddened by the loss of two employees.
"This is a particularly challenging time for everyone in our organization, and I wish to extend our sincere condolences on behalf of all our employees to the families and friends of Dave Mussati Jr., and Steve Arnovich," Daniel said.
"We also extend our thanks to local emergency response personnel for their compassion, their support and their diligent efforts to assist those affected by this incident.
On Thursday, the president of the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association said there was no safer way to transport oil and gas over long distances than pipelines.
"It's still the safest way to move large volumes of oil and gas, much safer, for example, than moving them by rail or truck or by boat," David MacInnis said in an interview Thursday.
"The reality is, whether you're talking about oil or natural gas pipelines in Canada, we've been very fortunate to have had very few incidents over the past 40 plus years."
The pipeline, which is the world's longest liquid petroleum pipeline, shuttled crude oil from Saskatchewan into the U.S. Midwest.
The crude oil is used to make several kinds of fuel, such as gasoline and home heating oil. The pipeline system provides the U.S. with 19 per cent of its domestic crude imports or 9.7 per cent of its overall domestic oil consumption.
Line 3 was closed for scheduled maintenance at the time of the accident, so it's expected the fire will not drastically affect the volume being carried.
Energy Department spokeswoman Megan Barnett said Thursday that the U.S. has 63.5 million barrels of oil reserves in the Midwest region which "can provide a cushion ... (and) oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is available to alleviate a severe supply disruption and remains available if necessary."
The explosion and fire led to a spike in oil prices Thursday. Crude prices for January delivery climbed as high as US$95.17 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday in Europe before slipping back to settle at US$91.01.
"This junction where these four lines come in, they supply the oil to Cushing, Oklahoma, which is where crude futures are actually priced," BNN's Michael Kane told Canada AM on Thursday.
Kane said the explosion caused the Cushing inventory to fall to 152.3 million barrels -- the lowest stock pile since October 2005.
Enbridge, based in Calgary, owns and operates Canada's largest natural gas distribution company, which provides oil to the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, and in New York State.
Canada is the biggest supplier of foreign crude to the United States. An average of 1.5 million barrels passes through the Enbridge system daily.
Enbridge is also developing a gas distribution system for New Brunswick.
With files from The Associated Press
