NEXEN Pipeline spill: Massive - cause still uncertain . . .

[Oscar]

Alberta oil spill cleanup begins, but cause still uncertain

[ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/nat ... e25582889/ ]

Dean Bennett EDMONTON — The Canadian Press Published Saturday, Jul. 18, 2015 5:33PM EDT Last updated Saturday, Jul. 18, 2015 5:35PM EDT

The clean-up of a pipeline spill south of Fort McMurray is underway, but the cause of the contamination has yet to be confirmed.

Vacuum trucks were on site Saturday and fencing went up to keep wildlife away near Nexen Energy’s Long Lake oilsands facility, said Kim Blanchette, a spokesperson for the Alberta Energy Regulator.

However Blanchette could not say what caused the breach in the double-walled pipe that spilled five million litres of oil emulsion into the area around the line.

“It’s still very early in the process,” Blanchette said in an interview from the spill site, about 35 km southeast of Fort McMurray.

“The important piece now is really containing the area and making sure all of those preventative measures are in place while they’re actually excavating that piece of pipeline so that the investigators and their forensic work can begin.”

Emulsion is a mix of oil, water, and sand.

The affected area is about 16,000 square metres.

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Coincidentally, the rupture made headlines as Alberta Premier Rachel Notley talked with fellow premiers and territorial leaders in Newfoundland about energy issues and the proposed Energy East pipeline, which would transport Alberta bitumen to New Brunswick.

Notley said her government will make sure all questions surrounding the rupture are answered, but said pipelines continue to be the safest way to carry oil and gas across the country.

The Nexen rupture comes just a few months after Murphy Oil spilled about 2.7 million litres of condensate at its oilfield in northwestern Alberta in March.

Condensate is used to dilute heavy oil so it can flow through pipelines.

In 2011, about 4.5 million litres of oil leaked from a Plains Midstream pipeline into marshlands near the northern Alberta community of Little Buffalo.

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More Related to this Story

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• Nexen pipeline spills oil emulsion in northern Alberta
[ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-o ... e25538677/ ]