Gas prices...

BLAZINGGIANTS · Jan 8, 2015

Or it could be some combination of all of those things.

Denny Crane · Jan 8, 2015

BTW, I think we're producing more oil than we consume, finally. And Obama administration has done more than block Keystone. They've not allowed drilling on government lands. All (or virtually all) the expanded oil production has occurred on private property.

Also Iraqi oil production is higher now than any time since the 1980s.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-m...r/klobuchar-says-us-worlds-no-1-oil-producer/

In the third quarter of 2014 -- the most recent available data -- the United States produced 14.2 million barrels of oil per day; Saudi Arabia produced 11.7 million per day; and Russia produced 10.5 million per day. Together, that’s about 40 percent of total global production.

This production growth has contributed to the United States’ ability to produce more oil than it imports for the first time in about 20 years.

The Energy Information Administration expects American production to continue to grow in 2015, despite recent lower crude oil prices.

Total oil production figures include crude oil, natural gas liquids and other liquid energy products.

On top of oil, the United States produces significantly more natural gas than Saudi Arabia. According to the Energy Information Administration, United States energy production is about evenly split between petroleum and natural gas. Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, primarily produces petroleum.

lawai'a · Jan 8, 2015

$3.71 in Kealakekua Hawaii, but Costco in kona @ 2.99 so still dropping here.

Denny Crane · Jan 8, 2015

http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrispr...-and-natural-gas-production-on-federal-lands/

Obama Stymies Oil and Natural Gas Production on Federal Lands

A new nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) report quantifies the Obama administration’s hostility towards America’s oil and natural gas industry. While oil and natural gas production has surged on non-federal lands, President Obama has overseen a decline in production on federal lands.

There are four entities that own land in the United States: the federal government, states, private landowners, and Native Americans. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) at the Department of the Interior is charged with leasing, selling, and generally managing oil and natural gas reserves on federal land.

Although the federal government heavily regulates the exploration and production process through laws like the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, etc, the federal government doesn’t control land owned by states or individuals. The point being, a fair way to judge the Obama administration’s stance towards oil and natural gas is to compare federal production to state and private land production.

According to the CRS report, oil production on federal lands actually fell 6 percent between 2009 and 2013. Over the same period of time, oil production increased by an astounding 61 percent on state and private lands. The decrease in federal production is not insubstantial but requires context in the form of state and private production numbers. As a result of these massive gains, crude oil production on state and private lands has risen by 2.1 million barrels per day. That increase alone is more than Algeria, Libya, Qatar, and Norway produce– all countries with storied oil reputations – and explains why the U.S. is on track to be the world’s largest oil producer.

donkiez · Jan 8, 2015

Your killing me here DC. Ok oil was over $60 a barrel in 2008 but fracking wasnt ready to take over then. The technology behind fracking has literally exploded in the recent years. Speculation but the break even point was probably way above $60 back then.

The keystone pipeline helps import more Canadian oil for processing that it does to help the US in any way, and it goes directly over some very important water tables. It should be debated and the honestly I dont think the benefits are that great anyway. I mean why do we want it, so we can have cheaper oil? Shit we are already at sub $50 a barrel without it.

The real fracking treasure is in west Texas centered around Midland, that is what has the Saudis scared shitless. The wolfcamp shale deposit is estimated to potentially hold more oil and natural gas than all of Saudi Arabia. No pipeline needed for that.

Just because Obama resist federal land drilling doesn't mean he is anti oil.

Also you guys all realize there is a ban on selling US produced oil and natural gas on the world market? This artificially keeps our prices low and makes us extra susceptible to world supply guts. I think most likely what you will see out of this is a push from the oil companies to remove this ban which will cause a spike in prices again.

Denny Crane · Jan 8, 2015

I've been going to upper state new york on business the past 3 years.

The people complained 3 years ago that those who lived over the state line in PA were able to reap beaucoup bucks from the oil companies for leasing their land for fracking.

I'm not sure when you think fracking started.

There's only evidence he blocks all things oil and does nothing to support it. Yet you say he does. Where's the proof? The oil boom here is happening in spite of him, and it's not happening in the sectors he favors (green).

The keystone pipeline will create many jobs and the oil sent from canada will be refined in our refineries (good for our companies) and the oil sold to the Chinese will mean the Chinese demand less elsewhere.

The pipeline is a multi $billion infrastructure project paid for with non-taxpayer dollars. There is only absurd arguments against it. Sorry if you feel different.

donkiez · Jan 8, 2015

Early 2000's Pennsylvania fracking is shit and did more to slow the industry and poison public opinion of fracking than anything else. The shale deposits are close to the surface and much more easily leak into the water supply, and the technology was crappy enough to cause pipeline drill leaks all over the place. Pennsylvania should have been the last place in the US to get fracked.

The pipeline will create many building jobs, but it will only create a handful of long term positions and all the risk will be assumed by the American people. A spill could poison a huge portion of the central U.S. agricultural irrigation water. We dont even need Canadian oil anymore. That doesnt sound absurd to me.

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/09/how-obama-became-oil-president-gas-fracking-drill

Considering all the talk about global warming, peak oil, carbon divestment, and renewable energy, you'd think that oil consumption in the United States would be on a downward path. By now, we should certainly be witnessing real progress toward a post-petroleum economy. As it happens, the opposite is occurring. US oil consumption is on an upward trajectory, climbing by 400,000 barrels per day in 2013 alone—and, if current trends persist, it should rise again both this year and next.

In other words, oil is back. Big time. Signs of its resurgence abound. Despite what you may think, Americans, on average, are drivingmore miles every day, not fewer, filling ever more fuel tanks with ever more gasoline, and evidently feeling ever less bad about it. The stigma of buying new gas-guzzling SUVs, for instance, seems to have vanished; according to CNN Money, nearly one out of three vehicles sold today is an SUV. As a result of all this, America's demand for oil grew more than China's in 2013, the first time that's happened since 1999.

Bill Mckibben: How Methane Wrecked Obama's Fracking Gambit
Accompanying all this is a little noticed but crucial shift in White House rhetoric. While President Obama once spoke of the necessity of eliminating our reliance on petroleum as a major source of energy, he now brags about rising US oil output and touts his efforts to further boost production.

Just five years ago, few would have foreseen such a dramatic oil rebound. Many energy experts were then predicting an imminent "peak" in global oil production, followed by an irreversible decline in output. With supplies constantly shrinking, it was said, oil prices would skyrocket and consumers would turn to hybrid vehicles, electric cars, biofuels, and various transportation alternatives. New government policies would be devised to facilitate this shift, providing tax breaks and other incentives for making the switch to renewables.

At that time, a growing concern over climate change and the prospect of further warming due to increased emissions of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels seemed to dim the long-term prospects for petroleum. After all, oil combustion is this country's single largest source of carbon emissions. This, in turn, clearly meant that any significant attempt to reduce emissions—whether through a carbon tax, a carbon cap-and-trade program, or other such measures—would naturally have to incorporate significant impediments to oil use. President Obama entered the White House promising to enact such a measure, and the House of Representativespassed a modified cap-and-trade bill in 2009. (It failed in the Senate and so never became law.)

The 2008 financial crisis and global economic meltdown only put oil's future in further doubt. Suddenly cash-conscious Americans began trading in their gas-guzzlers for smaller, more fuel-efficient cars, with the Obama administration adding its encouragement. When agreeing to the bailout of General Motors, for instance, the White House insisted that the reorganized company focus on the production of such vehicles. In a similar spirit, the administration's $787 billion stimulus package favored investment in electric cars, biofuels, high-speed rail, and other petroleum alternatives.

The president's comments at the time clearly reflected a belief that oil was an "old" form of energy facing inevitable decline. "The United States of America cannot afford to bet our long-term prosperity, our long-term security on a resource that will eventually run out, and even before it runs out will get more expensive to extract from the ground," he declared in 2011. "We can't afford it when the costs to our economy, our country, and our planet are so high." Not only did the country need to lessen its dangerous reliance on imported oil, he insisted, but on oil altogether. "The only way for America's energy supply to be truly secure is by permanently reducing our dependence on oil."

Obama's Turnaround on Oil

That was then and this is now, and Obama ain't talking that way no more. Instead, he regularly boasts of America's soaring oil output and points to all he's done and is still doing to further increase domestic production. Thanks to the sort of heightened investment in domestic output his administration has sponsored, he told a cheering Congress in January, "more oil [was] produced at home than we buy from the rest of the world—the first time that's happened in nearly twenty years." Although still offering his usual bow to the dangers of climate change, Obama did not hesitate to promise to facilitate further gains in domestic output.

In accord with his wishes, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced on July 18th that it would reopen a large portion of the waters off the Eastern seaboard, an area stretching all the way from Florida to Delaware, to new oil and natural gas exploration. Under the BOEM plan, energy companies will be allowed to employ advanced seismic technology to locate promising reserves beneath the seabed in preparation for a round of offshore licensing scheduled for 2018. At that point, the companies can bid for and acquire actual drilling leases. Environmental organizations have condemned the plan, claiming the seismic tests often involve the use of sonic blasts that could prove harmful to endangered sea animals, including whales. The truth is, however, that those seismic tests, by opening future fossil fuel deposits to development and exploitation, are likely, in the long run, to hurt human beings at least as much.

Here are some of the other measures recently taken by the administration to boost domestic oil production, according to a recent White House factsheet:

* An increase in the sales of leases for oil and gas drilling on federal lands. In 2013, the Bureau of Land Management held 30 such sales—the most in a decade—offering 5.7 million acres for lease by industry.

* An increase in the speed with which permits are being issued for actual drilling on federal lands. What's called "processing time" has, the White House boasts, been cut from 228 days in 2012 to 194 days in 2013.

* The opening up of an additional 59 million acres for oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, the site of a disastrous BP oil spill in April 2010.

In other words, global warming be damned!

In a turnaround that has gotten next to no attention and remarkably little criticism, President Obama is now making a legacy record for himself that will put the "permanent reduction of our dependence on oil" in its grave. His administration is instead on a drill-baby-drill course to increase production in every way imaginable on US territory, including offshore areas that were long closed to drilling due to environmental concerns.

What explains this dramatic turnaround?

The Rekindled Allure of Oil

The most significant factor behind the renewed popularity of oil has been a revolution in drilling technology. In particular, this involves the use of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") to extract oil and natural gas from previously inaccessible shale formations. These techniques include the use of drills that can turn sideways after penetrating thin underground shale layers, along with high-pressure water cannons to fracture the surrounding rock and liberate pockets of oil and gas. Until the introduction of these techniques, the hydrocarbons trapped in the shale were prohibitively expensive to produce and so ignored both by industry and the many experts predicting that "peak oil" was in sight.

Most domestic shale "plays" (as they are called in the industry) contain both oil and natural gas. They were first exploited for their gas content because of the greater ease in extracting commercial volumes of that fossil fuel. But when the price of gas collapsed—in part because of a glut of shale gas—many drillers found that they could make more money by redeploying their rigs in oil-rich shales like the Bakken formation in North Dakota and Eagle Ford in West Texas. The result has been a sudden torrent of domestic crude that has brought gasoline prices down (with a resulting increase in gasoline consumption) and created boom-like conditions in several parts of the country.

Prior to the utilization of horizontal drilling and fracking technology, US crude production was indeed facing long-term decline. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the Department of Energy, domestic crude output fell from a peak of 9.6 million barrels per day in 1970 to a low of 5 million barrels in 2008. With the introduction of fracking, however, the numbers started to soar. Total US crude output jumped from 5.7 million barrels per day in 2011 to 7.5 million in 2013. Output in 2014 is projected to be 8.5 million barrels per day, which would represent a remarkable increase of 2.8 million barrels per day in just three years.

The increase is, by the way, the largest posted by any of the world's oil producers from 2011-2013 and has generated multiple economic benefits for the country, along with significant environmental consequences. For one thing, it has kept gas prices relatively low. They are now averaging about $3.50 per gallon—a lot more than Americans were paying in the 1990s, but a lot less than most experts assumed would be the case in a post-peak-oil economy. This has, of course, spurred both those SUV sales and an increase in recreational driving. ("We were able to take a day-cation because of the lower gas prices," said Beth Hughes, of a four-hour roundtrip drive with her husband to San Antonio, to visit the Alamo and do some shopping.)

The increased availability of relatively affordable oil has also spurred investment in ancillary industries like petrochemicals and plastics. Petroleum is the basic raw material, or "feedstock," for a wide variety of subsidiary materials, including ethylene, propylene, and benzene, which in turn are used to make polyesters, plastics, and numerous consumer products. Many chemical firms have built new facilities to convert shale oil and shale gas into these commodities, a spur both to new jobs and greater tax revenues. In addition, with crude oil selling at around $100 per barrel, those extra 2.8 million barrels produced daily will add about $100 billion to the US economy in 2014, a substantial contribution to an otherwise tepid recovery.

Of course, the environmental downside to all this, already significant, could be staggering for the future. The use of hydro-fracking to release all that shale oil has resulted in the diversion of vast quantities of water to energy production, in the process regularly posing a threat to local water supplies. In some drought-affected areas, oil drilling is now competing with farming for access to ever-diminishing supplies of fresh water. The growing use of railroads to carry shale oil—an especially volatile hydrocarbon substance—has also led to several lethal explosions, triggered by accidents involving old and inadequately reinforced tank cars.

Of course, the greatest environmental fallout from the domestic oil boom will be a continuing deluge of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, further bolstering the greenhouse effect and ensuring higher world temperatures for years to come. While emissions from domestic coal use are likely to decline in the years ahead, in part due to new rules being formulated by the Environmental Protection Agency, the expected rise in emissions from oil and natural gas use will wipe out these gains, and so total US emissions are expected to be higher in 2040 than they are today, according to the EIA. As a result, we can expect little progress in international efforts to slow the advance of climate change and a steady increase in the frequency and intensity of storms, floods, fires, droughts, and heat waves.

As seen from Washington, however, the domestic oil rebound is largely a feel-good story and an essential part of an otherwise anemic economic recovery. Putting people back to work, Obama declared in May, "starts with helping businesses create more good jobs. One of the biggest factors in bringing jobs back to America has been our commitment to American energy over the last five years. When I took office, we set out to break our dependence on foreign oil. Today, America is closer to energy independence than we have been in decades."

"A Stronger Hand"

For the president and many other politicians, increased oil output, however important as a source of economic vitality and job creation, is far more than that. It is also a source of power and prestige, guaranteed to give the United States greater leverage in international affairs.

As Tom Donilon, then the president's senior adviser on national security, explained in April 2013, "America's new energy posture allows us to engage from a position of greater strength. Increasing US energy supplies act as a cushion that helps reduce our vulnerability to global supply disruptions and price shocks. It also affords us a stronger hand in pursuing and implementing our international security goals."

One area where American energy prowess has given us "a stronger hand," he suggested, was in negotiations with Tehran over the Iranian nuclear program. Because the US is importing less oil, there is a larger pool of foreign oil on which our allies can draw for their needs, which has made it easier to impose tough sanctions on Iran's petroleum exports—and so wring concessions from Iran's leadership circle.

Another area where many Washington pundits and politicians believe increased oil and gas production has strengthened the president's hand lies in the administration's efforts to impose multilateral sanctions on Russia's energy companies as a punishment for the Kremlin's covert backing of anti-government rebels in eastern Ukraine. Although still dependent on Russia for a large share of their energy intake, America's European allies are feeling somewhat less deferential to Moscow because of the growth in global supplies.

In other words, the striking spurt in domestic oil production has added a patriotic dimension to its already powerful allure.

Collective Schizophrenia

As polls show, most Americans acknowledge the reality of climate change andsupport efforts to reduce carbon emissions in order avert future climate-induced disasters. California and other states have even taken significant steps to reduce energy-related emissions and the Obama administration has, among other things,announced plans to improve the fuel efficiency of American cars and trucks.

In addition, the president and many in his administration clearly grasp the dangers of climate change—the increasing heat, drought, fiercer storms, rising sea levels, and other perils that, without serious curbs on the combustion of fossil fuels, will make the present look like a utopian moment in human history. Nevertheless, the numbers—from production to consumption—are anything but promising. According to the latest EIA projections, US carbon dioxide emissions from petroleum use willincrease by eight million metric tons between 2013 and 2015; such emissions are then expected to level off, at about 2.2 billion tons per year, despite substantial increases in average vehicle fuel efficiency.

With emissions from natural gas expected to rise—the inevitable result of the shale gas boom—and coal emissions experiencing only a modest decline (some of which is offset by rising US exports of coal to be burned elsewhere), total domestic carbon emissions from energy use in 2040 are still predicted to be a devastating 6% higher than they are today. Can there be any question at this point of how this will help ensure the sorts of predicted global temperature increases, with all the ensuing side effects, that every expert knows will be devastating to the planet?

At a national level, such a situation—knowing one thing and doing something else—can only be described as some form of mass delusion or a collective version of schizophrenia. In one part of our collective brain, we are aware that petroleum use must decline sharply to prevent the sorts of global catastrophes that we are only used to seeing in science fiction movies; in another, we retain our affection for driving and gasoline use without giving much thought to the consequences. We have a global warming president presiding over a massive expansion of fossil fuel production. Think of this as a form of collective mental compartmentalization that should frighten us all—and yet from the president on down, it's remarkable how few seem disturbed by it.

Obviously, this is an unsustainable condition. Eventually, excessive petroleum use will produce such frequent and severe climate effects that no president or energy executive would dare boast of increased petroleum output and none of us would even dream of filling up the gas tank to take a "day-cation" at a distant tourist site. Until we identify and begin treating this state of national schizophrenia, however, we will ensure that a time of mutual pain and hardship is ever more likely.
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Denny Crane · Jan 8, 2015

They said the same things about the alyeska pipeline. The fearmongering was proven to be completely wrong, right down to the effect on wildlife (which thrived).

Fear of spill = sky is falling bullshit.

The country has mass quantities of pipelines and there's been no apocalypse.

Denny Crane · Jan 8, 2015

And Obama still obstructed the oil industry while bragging that it is succeeding in spite of him.

Mother Jones' huge stretch to the contrary.

Denny Crane · Jan 8, 2015

jlprk · Jan 8, 2015

Denny Crane said: ↑

Obama's own Dept. of Commerce

View attachment 4589

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The economics professors I've talked to in the last 12 months say you're 100% wrong. Can you link to where the Dept. of Commerce clearly disagrees with almost all economists? No offhand minor stat, please, just show me an overwhelming clear statement from the Commerce Dept. that says that the entire approach of almost 100% of economists was an entire failure. Thanks, and don't have an epic fail when you try this.

donkiez · Jan 8, 2015

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pipeline_accidents_in_the_United_States_in_the_21st_century

2000[edit]

On January 10, approximately 100 barrels of jet fuel were discharged from Plantation Pipeline in Newington, Virginia, some of which entered into Accotink Creek and its adjoining shorelines. The failure resulted from a failed gasket on an interface detector.[1]

Koch Industries agreed to pay on January 13 a $35 million fine, due to a series of oil pipeline leaks, including 300 from 1990 to 1997. One of the allegations was the leaks were from a lack of maintenance of the pipelines.[2]

On January 21, a Chevron pipeline leaked from a welding flaw near Corinne, Utah, spilling about 100 barrels of diesel fuel. The product spread over 38 acres of salt flat and wetlands used by birds. About 75% to 80% of the spill was intentionally burned to eliminate it.[3][4]

An Equilon Pipeline Co. crude oil line was ruptured on January 21, by an 8 ton anchor dropped by a ship, off of the Louisiana coast. About 94,000 gallons of crude were spilled, creating a slick 2 miles wide by 7 miles long.[5][6]

On January 27, in Winchester, Kentucky, a Marathon Oil pipeline accident released about 490,000 US gallons (1,900,000 L) of crude oil. NTSB investigators found a dent on the bottom of the pipe in the rupture area. Marathon spent about $7.1 million in response to the accident.[7][8]

On February 5, a pipeline failed and spilled over 192,000 US gallons (730,000 L) of crude oil in the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge in Pennsylvania. The source of the spill was a break in a miter bend in the pipe, which was estimated to be at least 50 years old.[9][10]

An Explorer petroleum products pipeline failed in Greenville, Texas, on March 9. The 28-inch pipeline ruptured and released 13,436 barrels (2,136.2 m3) of gasoline. The released gasoline eventually reached East Caddo Creek. The banks of the tributary and creek contained the escaping gasoline as it flowed away from the ruptured pipe. The probable cause of the pipeline failure was corrosion-fatigue cracking that initiated at the edge of the longitudinal seam weld at a likely preexisting weld defect. Contributing to the failure was the loss of pipe coating integrity.[11]

A pipeline released fuel oil at Chalk Point near Aquasco, Maryland, on April 7. The Piney Point Oil Pipeline system, which was owned by the Potomac Electric Power Company (Pepco), experienced a pipe failure at the Chalk Point Generating Station in southeastern Prince George's County, Maryland. The release was not discovered and addressed by the contract operating company, Support Terminal Services, Inc., until the late afternoon. Approximately 140,400 US gallons (531,000 L) of fuel oil were released into the surrounding wetlands and Swanson Creek and, subsequently, the Patuxent River as a result of the accident. No injuries were caused by the accident, which cost approximately $71 million for environmental response and clean-up operations.[12]

A Colonial Pipeline Co. line failed near Greensboro, North Carolina on May 19. At least 714 gallons (17 barrels) of kerosene spilled, some of which entered a pond that flows into a tributary of the East Fork Deep River. The kerosene spill caused a sheen about 40 feet by 40 feet in the pond. As a result of this, and 6 other previous Colonial Pipeline accidents, the EPA fined Colonial $34 million in 2003.[13]

On June 7, a stopple fitting weld failed on a Wolverine Pipeline Company line, causing a rupture releasing 75,000 US gallons (280,000 L) of gasoline into the environment, and causing the evacuation of more than 500 homes in Blackman Charter Township, Michigan. The failure caused the shutdown of 30% of Michigan's gasoline supplies for nine days, contaminated a creek which flows into the Grand River, and a railroad track near the failure site was shut down for a week. Later tests found 715 anomalies in this pipeline. Wolverine later agreed to pay for switching homes in the area from local water wells to a city water source.[14][15]

On July 5, two boats hit a Southern Natural Gas pipeline off the coast of Plaquemines, Louisiana, causing a gas fire that burned 5 members of the boat crews. The fire could be seen at 35 miles away from it.[16][17]

On August 19, a 30-inch diameter El Paso Natural Gas pipeline rupture and fire near Carlsbad, New Mexico killed 12 members of an extended family camping over 600 feet (180 m) from the rupture point. The force of the escaping gas created a 51-foot (16 m)-wide crater about 113 feet (34 m) along the pipe. A 49-foot (15 m) section of the pipe was ejected from the crater, in three pieces measuring approximately 3 feet (0.91 m), 20 feet (6.1 m), and 26 feet (7.9 m) in length. The largest piece of pipe was found about 287 feet (87 m) northwest of the crater. The cause of the failure was determined to be severe internal corrosion of that pipeline. On July 26, 2007, a USDOJ Consent Decree was later entered into by the pipeline owner to do pipeline system upgrades to allow better internal pipeline inspections. [18][19][20]

On August 20, a gas pipeline exploded & burned in Concord, North Carolina. A nearby shopping mall was evacuated, but, there were no injuries.[21]

On August 24, a 6-inch pipeline operated by Chevron failed from alleged external corrosion, spilling 126,000 gallons of crude oil into an unnamed creek, nearSnyder, Texas. The creek was dry at the time. Later, a Federal Court ruled that the Clean Water Act did not apply, since there was no water flowing in the creek at the time.[22][23]

For the second time in 24 hours, a state contractor building a noise wall along the I-475 in Toledo, Ohio struck an underground pipeline, and for a second time the contractor blamed faulty pipeline mapping for the accident. In this incident, the pipe was a 6-inch gas pipeline. The crew was digging a hole with an auger for a noise-wall support on September 8, when it hit the underground pipe less than 500 meters from the previous day's incident.

A bulldozer ruptured a 12-inch diameter NGL pipeline on Rt. 36 south of Abilene, Texas on September 7. An Abilene police detective, with 21 years of service, was severely burned when the vapors ignited, and later died. Nearby, a woman saved herself by going underwater in her swimming pool. Her house was destroyed by the explosion and fire. The owner of the pipeline, ExxonMobil, was later fined by the Texas Railroad Commission for the pipeline not being marked.[24][25][26][27]

On November 3, a front end loader punctured an 8-inch pipeline carrying diesel fuel in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Diesel fuel sprayed 40 feet (12 m) into the air. The fuel flowed for over 2 hours before stopping, and contaminating the area with more than 40,000 US gallons (150,000 L) of diesel fuel.[28]

2001[edit]

On January 17 and 18, a series of gas explosion hit downtown Hutchinson, Kansas, resulting in 2 deaths, and 2 buildings being destroyed. Later, it was discovered that gas was leaking from an underground gas storage cavern in the area.[29][30]

A 12-inch natural gas pipeline exploded in Weatherford, Texas on March 22. No one was injured, but the blast created a hole in the ground about 15 feet (4.6 m) in diameter and the explosion was felt several miles away.

On April 1, a Dome Pipeline in North Dakota carrying gasoline ruptured and burst into flames a few miles west of Bottineau, North Dakota. An estimated 1.1 million US gallons (4,200 m3) of gasoline burned before the pipeline could be shut down. The company attributed the break to damage by an "outside force," which A Bottineau County Sheriff said appeared to be frost that melted at uneven rates, twisting and breaking the pipeline.[31]

On April 14, a 6-inch petroleum productions failed near Harwood, North Dakota, spilling 40 barrels of fuel oil. There were no injuries. The failure was due to anERW seam failure, with this particular pipeline having had other ERW seam failures in the past in 1987 and 1993.[32]

A MAPCO 10-inch propane pipeline exploded and burned, in Platte County, Missouri, on May 1. 13,500 barrels of propane were burned.[33][34][35]

A bulldozer being used in Taylor County, Texas hit a petroleum pipeline on May 24, causing a large petroleum fire. There were no injuries.[36]

On June 13, in Pensacola, Florida, at least ten persons were injured when two natural gas lines ruptured and exploded after a parking lot gave way beneath a cement truck at a car dealership. The blast sent chunks of concrete flying across a four-lane road, and several employees and customers at neighboring businesses were evacuated. About 25 cars at the dealership and 10 boats at a neighboring business were damaged or destroyed.

On July 24, a pipeline ruptured and spread burning gasoline near Manheim, Pennsylvania.[37][38]

At approximately 5:05 a.m. MST, on August 11, an El Paso Natural Gas 24-inch gas transmission pipeline failed near Williams, Arizona, resulting in the release of natural gas. The natural gas continued to discharge for about an hour before igniting.Stress corrosion cracking was determined to be the cause of the failure.[39][40]

On August 12, a bulldozer hit a 14-inch LP gas pipeline near Weatherford, Texas, causing a massive fire. One person was injured.[41][42]

On August 17, an Oklahoma crude oil pipeline ruptured after being struck by a machine cleaning roadside ditches, sending oil 30 feet (9.1 m) into the air and damaging nearby cotton crops with up to 150,000 US gallons (570,000 L) spilled.[43]

On September 3, at approximately 1:00 p.m. CST, a rupture occurred near the intersection of the 22" T-ML Pipeline and the Black Bayou in Louisiana, resulting in the release of an estimated 8.00 mmcf to13.00 mmcf of natural gas. In addition, the liquids loss is estimated to be 15,000 gallons.[44]

On October 4, a drunken man used a rifle to shoot a hole in the Alaskan Pipeline. More than 285,000 gallons of crude oil were spilled, costing more $13 million to clean up. The man was later convicted in Court.[45]

On October 15, a 6-inch ConocoPhillips LPG pipeline failed near Sweeny, Texas, forcing 2 dozen residents to evacuate. About 195,000 gallons of LPG were lost.[46][47]

On or about November 27, approximately 2,575 barrels of Jet A Kerosene (Jet Fuel) discharged from the P-62 pipeline of the TEPPCO Pipeline System into tributaries of the Neches River and the Neches River itself. The release occurred 4 miles southeast of Vidor, Texas. This spill was caused by disbonded coating and external corrosion on the pipeline. This incident was later part of a US EPA Consent Decree.[48]

On December 14, an anhydrous ammonia spill near Algona, Iowa killed nearly 1.3 million fish, the largest fish kill on that state's record-to-date, Iowa state officials said. More than 58,000 US gallons (220,000 L) of anhydrous ammonia over a nine-hour period spilled into Lotts Creek and the Des Moines River, killing minnows, bass and other game fish; the broken pipeline. Koch Industries owned the 8-inch pipeline, and was doing maintenance work on a valve on the pipeline. The plume drifted over a six-mile (10 km) area causing officials to evacuate residents in its path.[49]

2002[edit]

On February 8, a trenching machine with a new rock bit being tested hit a 20-inch gas transmission pipeline in Noble County, Oklahoma, causing an explosion that killed the trencher operator.[50]

On March 6, an explosion and a massive fire hit a Tennessee Gas Pipeline natural gas substation near Mount Sterling, Kentucky. 30 families in the area voluntarily evacuated. There were no injuries.[51][52]

On March 13, a Buckeye Partners pipeline ruptured due to internal corrosion in Wren, Ohio, spilling about 1500 gallons of gasoline.[53]

On or about March 13, approximately 20 barrels of oil or jet fuel were discharged from a portion of the Plantation Pipeline in Alexandria, Virginia, some of which entered into an unnamed tributary of Hooff Run and its adjoining shorelines. The pipeline failure appears to have resulted from a hole in the pipeline caused by high-voltage arcing between the pipeline and a utility pole anchor.[1]

On March 15, a failure occurred on a 36-inch gas pipeline near Crystal Falls, Michigan. The failure resulted in a release of gas, which did not ignite, that created a crater 30 feet (9.1 m) deep, 30 feet (9.1 m) wide, and 120 feet (37 m) long. There were no deaths or injuries.[54]

On April 6, a BP-Amoco pipeline ruptured and released about 100,000 US gallons (380,000 L) of oil into a coastal area known as Little Lake in Louisiana.[43]

An 8-inch petroleum products pipeline failed on May 22, spilling about 2,000 barrels of unleaded gasoline on to a wheat field near Ottawa, Kansas. Booms had to be deployed in nearby creeks. The pipe failed along a seam, possibly due to LF-ERW pipeline failure issues.[55]

On June 20, PHMSA ordered Columbia Gas Transmission Company to do extensive repair to one of their gas transmission pipelines in the states of Pennsylvania& New York, after finding extensive wall thinning on sections of that pipeline system caused by external corrosion. Approximately 800 anomalies with wall thickness losses of greater than 65 percent were found during a smart pig examination, with 76 of the found anomalies having a wall thickness loss of greater than 80 percent. Many of the affected sections of pipe were older sections lacking coating, which is known to reduce external corrosion on pipelines.[56]

On July 4, there was a rupture of an Enbridge Pipeline, and release of crude oil near Cohasset, Minnesota. The pipeline ruptured in a marsh in Itasca County, spilling 6,000 barrels (950 m3) of crude oil. In an attempt to keep the oil from contaminating the Mississippi River, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources set a controlled burn that lasted for 1 day and created a smoke plume about one mile (1.6 km) high and five miles (8 km) long. The pipe failed due to cracking caused by train shipping induced cracking of the pipe being delivered.[57]

A gas explosion on July 24 leveled a Hopkinton, Massachusetts home, killing a 4-year-old girl and her 5-year-old sister. A failed sleeve on the gas line in the basement of the home was suspected of being the cause.[58]

On August 5, a natural gas pipeline exploded and caught fire west of Rt. 622, on Poca River Road near Lanham, West Virginia. Emergency workers evacuated three or four families. Kanawha and Putnam Counties in the area were requested Shelter-In-Place. Parts of the Pipeline were thrown hundreds of yards away, around, and across Poca River. The Fire was not contained for several hours because valves to shutdown line did not exist. The Orange Glow from the fire at 11 PM; could be seen for several miles.[59] The explosion and fire caused in $2,735,339 property damage.[60]

At approximately 22:10 on Friday, September 20, a gasoline leak from an 8-inch pipeline operated by Cenex Pipeline (terminal) was discovered near Glendive, Montana. The release of approximately 1,000 barrels (160 m3) of unleaded gasoline flowed into Seven Mile Creek, and then downstream into to its confluence with the Yellowstone River. Several trenches was constructed near the rupture pipe for product collection points. As of September 25, 2002, a vacuum truck had recovered approximately 21,000 US gallons (79,000 L) of gasoline [and water] from the boomed locations and trenches.[61][62]

On November 2, a Chevron pipeline ruptured near Corinne, Utah, spilling about 450 barrels of petroleum. The cause was from external corrosion.[63]

A farmer plowing a field hit and ruptured a Williams Companies pipeline on December 10, near Lawrence, Kansas. About 4,700 gallons of gasoline were spilled. Later, it was noted that particular pipeline lacked soil coverage in places, including some exposed spots. There were no injuries.[64][65]

2003[edit]

An Enbridge crude oil pipeline ruptured at a terminal in Douglas County, Wisconsin on January 24. Some of the crude oil flowed into the Nemadji River. Over 100,000 US gallons (380,000 L) were spilled.[31]

A natural gas pipeline ruptured near Viola, Illinois on February 2, resulting in the release of natural gas which ignited. A l6-foot section of the pipe fractured into three sections, which were ejected to distances of about 300 yards from the failure site.[66]

A 24-inch gas transmission pipeline started leaking in Scott County, Missouri, underneath the Mississippi River on February 20. A shifted pipeline weight has caused damage to the pipeline.[67]

On or about February 22, 2003, approximately 788 barrels of gasoline were discharged from a portion of Plantation Pipeline in Hull, Georgia, some of which entered into an unnamed tributary of East Sandy Creek and its adjoining shorelines. The spill resulted from a failed gasket on a buried block valve.

Dropping temperatures caused an Enbridge pipeline to fail in Samaria, Michigan on February 27. 130 barrels of crude oil were spilled.

On March 13, a seam failed on an 8-inch Dixie Pipeline propane line near Appling, Georgia, releasing about 110,000 gallons of propane. There were no injuries. The pipe split due to seam failure.[68][69]

On March 23, a 24-inch El Paso Natural Gas pipeline near Eaton, Colorado exploded. The explosion sent flames 160 meters in the air, forcing evacuations. No one was injured. The heat from the flames melted the siding of two nearby homes and started many smaller grass fires.[70]

On April 1, a 12-inch ConocoPhillips petroleum products pipeline ruptured, spilling about 1,000 barrels of diesel fuel near Ponca City, Oklahoma, with of the fuel getting into Doga Creek. There were no injuries. Low Frequency ERW pipe seam failure was suspected as the cause.[71]

On May 1, a 26-inch Williams Companies natural gas transmission pipeline failed near Lake Tapps, Washington. A neighboring elementary school, a supermarket, and 30 to 40 homes in approximately a 4-mile (6.4 km) area were evacuated. There was no fire or injuries. Land movement was suspected at first, but the failure was later determined to be from Stress corrosion cracking. There were 4 previous failures on this pipeline in the preceding 8 years.[72][73]

An 8-inch LPG pipeline failed near Lebanon, Ohio on May 8. About 80 homes and one school in the area were evacuated. There was no fire or injuries.[74]

A 30-inch gas pipeline exploded and burned near Nederland, Texas on May 20. The cause of the failure was internal corrosion, and the damages were stimated to be $6,901,322. [75][76]

Excavation damage to a natural gas distribution line resulted in an explosion and fire in Wilmington, Delaware on July 2. A contractor hired by the city of Wilmington to replace sidewalk and curbing, dug into an unmarked natural gas service line with a backhoe. Although the service line did not leak where it was struck, the contact resulted in a break in the line inside the basement of a nearby building, where gas began to accumulate. A manager for the contractor said that he did not smell gas and therefore did not believe there was imminent danger and that he called an employee of the gas company and left a voice mail message. At approximately 1:44 p.m., an explosion destroyed two residences and damaged two others to the extent that they had to be demolished. Other nearby residences sustained some damage, and the residents on the block were displaced from their homes for about a week. Three contractor employees sustained serious injuries. Eleven additional people sustained minor injuries.[77]

On July 3 a jury found Texas-New Mexico Pipeline (TNMP) Company guilty of fraud, gross negligence and willful misconduct in concealing a 1992 crude oil pipeline leak beneath a Midland, Texas residential subdivision, before selling the pipeline to EOTT Energy in 1999. Oil was discovered in the water table in late 2000, and in March 2001 a group of Midland residents sued EOTT, TNMP and Equilon. Residents living on affected land also received settlements. The spill was estimated in 2003 to be 9,000–13,000 barrels. 190 boxes full of TNMP documents about the pipeline dating from the late 1980s to early 1990s (prior to EOTT Energy taking over the pipeline) were dug up from a 45-foot-deep hole at a site along the company's pipeline in New Mexico.[78][79]

A 16-inch Citgo petroleum products pipeline failed in Cook County, Illinois on July 10. About 25 barrels of gasoline were spilled from the pipeline. A crack in the pipe had developed at a dent. There was no fire or injured reported.[80]

On July 16, a 12 3/4-inch pipeline burst in Barnes County, North Dakota, releasing 9,000 barrels of propane, which ignited. There were no casualties. During repairs, mechanical damage was seen on 2 nearby section of this pipeline.[81]

On July 30, a Kinder Morgan pipeline in Tucson, Arizona ruptured, and sprayed 16,548 gallons of gasoline on five houses under construction, and flooding nearby streets with gasoline. The resulting pipeline closure caused major gas shortages and price increases in the state. The failure at first was thought to be from LF-ERW flaws, but tests showed it was due to Stress Corrosion Cracking. A hydrostatic test that was performed on this pipeline after repairs failed again 40 feet (12 m) from the first failure.[82][83][84][85][86]

A 26-inch Kinder Morgan & Myria Holdings Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America transmission pipeline ruptured in Caddo County, Oklahoma on August 8, releasing about 84,000 MCF of natural gas. A 54-foot long section of 26" diameter pipe had blown out and landed 30 feet from the ditch. Evacuations took place within 3/4 of a mile from the release, but there was no fire or casualties. Stress corrosion cracking was identified as the pipe failure's cause.[87]

On September 26, a propane pipeline at the Phillips Petroleum storage facility in Cahokia, Illinois ruptured, sending flames high into the air and sparking small grass fires in the area.

On October 6, a 12-inch petroleum products pipeline ruptured in Johnson County, Kansas, spilling about 100 to 200 barrels of diesel fuel. Some of the diesel contaminated a nearby waterway. There were no injuries.[88]

A failure on an Enbridge pipeline near Bay City, Michigan spilled 500 barrels of crude oil on October 13.[89][90]

A leak on what was originally the Big Inch 24-inch of natural gas occurred in Orange County, Indiana on October 14. There were no injuries or evacuations. The pipeline had been installed in 1943.[91]

On November 2, a Texas Eastern Transmission natural gas pipeline exploded in Bath County, Kentucky, about 1.5 km south of a Duke Energy pumping station. A fire burned for about an hour before firefighters extinguished it. No one was injured and no property damage was reported.[31]

An 8-inch Buckeye Partners pipeline failed near Mazon, Illinois on November 9. While repairs were being tested on this pipeline on November 14, another section of this pipeline failed about 1500 feet from the first leak. About 10 barrels of gasoline and diesel fuel were spilled by the 2 leaks, requiring soil removal. External corrosion caused both failures. There were no injuries.[92]

Another section of the same Williams Companies gas transmission pipeline that failed on May 1, 2003, failed in Lewis County, Washington on December 13. There was no fire this time. Gas flowed for 3 hours before being shut off. Gas pressure had already been reduced 20% on this pipeline after the May 1 explosion. External corrosion and Stress Corrosion Cracking were seen in this failed area of pipe.[73]

2004[edit]

A TEPPCO 8-inch propane pipeline failed on January 25, near Davenport, New York. The propane ignited, destroying a trailer home, and forcing evacuations. About 5,000 barrels of propane were burned. There were no injuries. The incident resulted from a through-wall failure of the pipe material at a fitting that was attached to the top of the pipe.[93][94]

On March 12, a TEPPCO pipeline spilled about 500 barrels of unleaded gasoline spilled into the Moro Creek, which flows into the Sabine River near Kingsland, Arkansas. The cause was corrosion of a i-inch bleeder line, that was part of a 20-inch pipeline block valve used to equalize pressure across the valve.[48]

On April 28, a petroleum pipeline of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners ruptured, and spilled an estimated 103,000 gallons of diesel fuel into marshes, adjacent toSuisun Bay, in Northern California. The line failed from external cossorosion. The company failed to notify California authorities about the spill for 18 hours, a failure for which it was later cited.[31][95][96]

On May 23, a leak in a sampling tube on a pipeline in Renton, Washington spilled several thousand gallons of gasoline, which ignited.[97]

A series of explosions starting on August 19 hit an underground natural gas storage cavern in Moss Bluff, Texas, resulting in evacuations for a 3 mile radius. The first blast about 4 a.m. sent flames 150 to 200 feet into the air. The second explosion was seen as far as 20 miles away. Some type of equipment failure was suspected. The cavern had just been expanded using the SMUG (solution mining under gas) process, which permits salt cavern expansion without interrupting gas storage operations. There were no injuries reported.[98][99]

On August 21, a natural gas explosion destroyed a residence located at in DuBois, Pennsylvania. Two residents were killed in this accident. The NTSB determined that the probable cause of the leak, explosion, and fire was the fracture of a defective butt-fusion joint.[100]

A vandal started up a trackhoe at a construction site in New Caney, Texas, and dug into a propylene pipeline on September 26. The escaping propylene ignited, causing nearby residents to evacuate. There were no injuries reported.[101]

On September 27, 2004, near Blair, Nebraska, an ammonia pipeline failed, releasing 193,213 pounds of ammonia, resulting in the hospitalization of one individual and emergency responders evacuated homes within a one mile circumference of the break. An estimated 1,000 fish were killed along North Creek and in a golf course pond.[102]

A pipeline failed in Hughes County, Oklahoma on September 28, spilling an estimated 1,500 barrels (240 m3) of diesel fuel.[103]

Crews from Shell Oil Company recovered 100,000 of an oil seawater mix in October. Hurricane Ivan had damaged a crude oil pipeline off of the LouisianaCoast.[104]

On October 27, an anhydrous ammonia pipeline ruptured near Kingman, Kansas, and released approximately 4,858 barrels (772.4 m3) of anhydrous ammonia. Nobody was killed or injured due to the release. The anhydrous ammonia leak killed more than 20,000 fish along a 12.5-mile section of Smoots Creek, including some from threatened species. The pipeline had previous damage to it. The pipeline controller had misinterpreted the leak as other problems with the system operation, causing the leak to go on longer. As a result of this, and another ammonia pipeline leak the month before, the pipeline owner and its two operating companies were later fined $3.65 million.[102][105]

A construction crew ruptured a high-pressure gas line in Little Rock, Arkansas on November 1, near one of the state's busiest intersections Monday, triggering a fire that melted traffic lights that hung overhead. No one was injured.[106]

On November 8, a NGL pipeline failed in a housing division in Ivel, Kentucky. The vapor cloud from the leak ignited, seriously burning a Kentucky State Trooper evacuating those living in the area. Eight others were injured and five homes were destroyed. The pipeline, only 65 miles (105 km) long, had 11 previous corrosion failures.[107][108]

On November 9, in Walnut Creek, California, a petroleum pipeline carrying gasoline to San Jose, California, owned and operated by Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMEP) was struck by a backhoe used by Mountain Cascade Inc. (MC), a contractor operating in the construction of a water pipeline for the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD). A massive gasoline spill was subsequently ignited, resulting in an explosive fireball that caused the deaths, by burns, of four workers and one supervisor and the severe injury of five others. A Kinder Morgan worker had misread an as built map, and had incorrectly marked the pipeline's route before the accident.[109]

On November 21, a 14-inch petroleum products pipeline sprung a leak while it was shipping gasoline in the Mohave Desert. The Calnev Pipeline, owned and operated by the California-Nevada Pipeline Company, a subsidiary of Kinder-Morgan Energy Partners, is the main source of petroleum fuel products for Las Vegas, Nevada. An 80-foot (24 m) geyser of gasoline was discovered on the next morning, after numerous complaints of a strong gasoline odor along Interstate 15 in northern San Bernardino County, CA.[110][111]

Employees were performing maintenance on a propane pipeline near Mantador, North Dakota on December 15, when a gasket on the pipeline's valve failed, causing a leak. Nearby resident were evacuated, and a rail line was shut down temporarily. There were no injuries.[112]

As much as 5,000 gallons of crude oil spilled on December 24 from a ConocoPhillips pipeline south of Laurel, Montana near the Yellowstone River. Hydrogen sulfide gas from the oil could have posed a major danger, but ``the wind helped immensely to dissipate the gas.[113]

2005[edit]

In January, a Mid-Valley owned and Sunoco operated pipeline ruptured, spilling 260,000 US gallons (980,000 L) of oil into the Kentucky and Ohio rivers. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency fined the companies $2.5 million for the spill.[114]

On January 18, an Enbridge pipeline failed from temperature problems, causing a spill of 100 barrels of crude oil in Bay City, Michigan. The pipe was just 2 years old at the time.[90][115]

On January 26, a Mid Valley 22-inch pipeline ruptured in Carrollton, Kentucky, spilling about 290,000 gallons of crude oil. SOme of the crude entered the Ohio River. The pipe failure was caused by earth movement.[116][117]

An ExxonMobil gasoline pipeline fire forced 43 families from their homes near Allentown, Pennsylvania on February 1. The fire burned for over 72 hours. There were no reported injuries.[118][119]

On or about February 28, 2005, approximately 2,497 barrels of Jet A Kerosene discharged from a 14-inch TEPPCO pipeline, reaching the Big Cow Creek, flowing into the Sabine River, near Newton, Texas. The discharge was caused by the over-tightening of a coupling at a 3/8-inch cooling line at the top of a 14-inch mainline pump.[48]

On March 16, a crew installing a communications cable nicked a gas distribution pipeline in Moon Township, Pennsylvania. The crew then notified the local One Call for digging center, but, failed to alert first responders. 2 hours after the nick, gas exploded in a home, burning 2 teenagers there.[120]

A Kinder Morgan Energy Partners petroleum products pipeline was found to be leaking gasoline, near Truckee, California, on April 1. Gasoline spread into Summit Creek, then, into Donner Lake. About 300 gallons spilled.[121][122]

On May 13, an underground natural gas pipeline exploded near Marshall, Texas, sending a giant fireball into the sky and hurling a 160-foot (49 m) section of pipe onto the grounds of a nearby electric power generating plant. 2 people were hurt. The OPS concluded that stress corrosion cracking was the culprit.[123]

On May 13, the 30-inch Seaway Pipeline, operated by TEPPCO at the time, failed in Bryan County, Oklahoma, spilling approximately 898 barrels of crude oil. Oil reached Eastman Creek. The discharge was caused by a 6-inch longitudinal seam split on the pipeline that resulted from a stress crack that may have been induced by conditions occurring during rail transport of the pipe, and enlarged by pressure-cycle-induced stresses over years of operation of the pipeline.[48][124]

On May 23, a Magellan Pipeline petroleum products pipeline broke near Kansas City, Kansas, spilling gasoline into the nearby Missouri River. About 2,936 barrels of gasoline were spilled, with about 2,400 barrels being lost.[125][126]

A 12-inch (300 mm) Kinder Morgan Energy Partners pipeline ruptured in El Paso, Texas on May 28, releasing gasoline.[127]

On August 11, a bulldozer hit a crude oil pipeline north of Lufkin, Texas. The escaping crude ignited, injuring the bulldozer operator. About 18,500 gallons of crude oil were lost.[128][129]

Hurricane Katrina caused a protective levee to fail near Nairn in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, causing a Shell 20-inch pipeline to rupture on August 29. About 13,400 gallons were spilled, with about 10,500 gallons of this spill reaching the shoreline, and coastal marshes.[130]

A pipeline pumping station employee was killed in Monroe, Ohio, when leaking propane was ignited and exploded by an arcing pump on September 19. Flames reached 300 feet (91 m) high in the following fire.[131][132]

A natural gas compressor station exploded near Rifle, Colorado on December 6, about 200 yards from Interstate 70. There was only one minor injury to a nearby truck driver.[133]

On December 13, workers removing an underground oil tank in Bergenfield, New Jersey undermined a 1 1/4-inch steel gas pipeline. The gas line later failed, causing an explosion. Three residents of a nearby apartment building were killed. Four other residents and a tank removal worker were injured. Failure to evacuate the apartment building after the gas line ruptured was listed as a contributing factor.[134]

2006[edit]

On February 28, a gas compressor station explosion severely burned a worker, and set off a raging fire near DeBeque, Colorado. A second explosion at that site soon after caused no injuries.[135]

The Prudhoe Bay oil spill: On March 2, a surveillance crew discovered a crude oil spill from a BP crude pipeline near North Slope Borough, Alaska. The pipeline failure resulted in a release currently estimated at 5,000 barrels (790 m3) of processed crude oil, impacting the arctic tundra and covering approximately 2 acres (8,100 m2) of permafrost. The pipeline's leak detection system was not effective in recognizing and identifying the failure. Failure to run cleaning pigs to remove internal corrosive build up. The failure caused crude oil price to spike throughout the World.[136][137]

On March 23, a pipeline failed west of Toledo, Ohio, spilling about 200 barrels (32 m3) of unleaded gasoline. During the repair work, another smaller nearby leak was also found.[138]

On April 17, a Plantation Pipeline line experienced a failure in Henrico County, near Richmond, Virginia. The failure resulted in the release of 23,226 gallons of jet fuel in a residential area. The jet fuel sprayed for approximately 14 minutes and the spray traveled the distance of approximately 200 feet (61 m). The jet fuel did not ignite.[139][140]

On June 27, a Koch Industries pipeline carrying crude oil failed near the town of Little Falls, Minnesota. The pipeline estimated that approximately 3,200 barrels (510 m3) of crude oil were released. The pipeline failed from previous mechanical damage to the pipeline.[141][142]

On July 22, a Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company gas transmission pipeline ruptured, resulting in an estimated release of 42,946,000 cu ft (1,216,100 m3) of natural gas near Clay City in Clark County, Kentucky. The gas ignited, but there were no injuries, and just minor property damage. External corrosion was suspected.[143][144]

A Kinder Morgan petroleum pipeline failed in Romeoville, Illinois on August 12. About 59,000 US gallons (220,000 L) of butane were lost. External corrosion was the cause, but there were no injuries.[145][146]

On September 29, a crew replacing an old pipeline hit a high pressure gas pipeline in Labette County, Kansas, killing a crewman. Resident with a milre of the incident were evacuated for a time.[147]

On October 12, a pipeline exploded when a tugboat pushing two barges hit that pipeline Thursday in West Cote Blanche Bay, about two miles (3 km) from shore and 100 miles (160 km) southwest of New Orleans, Louisiana. 4 crew members were killed, and 2 were missing and later presumed dead.[148][149]

An ammonia pipeline failed from corrosion near Clay Center, Kansas on October 25, releasing about 4500 barrels of ammonia. 2 people were injured by the fumes.[150]

A jet-black, 300-acre (1.2 km2) burn site surrounded the skeletal hulk of a bulldozer that struck a natural-gas pipeline during construction of another pipeline, on November 11, and produced a powerful explosion near Cheyenne, Wyoming. The bulldozer operator was killed. The company building the new pipeline was fined $2.3 million for failing to obtain a locate on the other pipeline.[151][152]

On or about November 27, 2006, approximately 97 barrels of gasoline were discharged from a portion of Plantation Pipeline in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, into Paw Creek and its adjoining shorelines. The leak resulted from a failed gasket on an above-ground block valve.[1]

On December 19, a lineman for Midwest Energy hit a natural gas transmission pipeline near Mason, Michigan. The lineman was killed in the following explosion & fire.[153][154]

A Plains All American Pipeline ruptured on December 24, spilling about 23,856 gallons of crude oil in the Gulf of Mexico, about 30 miles southeast of Galveston, Texas.[155][156]

2007[edit]

On January 1, an Enbridge pipeline that runs from Superior, Wisconsin to near Whitewater, Wisconsin failed, resulting in a spill of 1,500 barrels of crude oil onto farmland and into a drainage ditch. Incomplete fusion of a longitudinal weld at the pipe maker that failed as pressure cycle was established as the cause.[157][158]

On February 2, a construction crew struck an Enbridge pipeline in Rusk County, Wisconsin with equipment, spilling 4,800 barrels (760 m3) of crude oil, of which only 2,066 barrels were recovered.[159] Some of the oil filled a hole more than 20 feet (6.1 m) deep and was reported to have contaminated the local water table.[160]

On Feb 17, in a rural area of Harris County, Texas, a Tennessee Gas Pipeline transmission pipeline was damaaged, and later exploded and burned. Grass fires spread across a three-square mile rural area. There were no injuries. [161][162]

On March 29, 2007, near Yutan, Nebraska, a pipeline was hit by construction equipment. About 1,697 barrels of natural gasoline was lost.[163]

A backhoe helping to lay a gas pipeline hit another gas pipeline on May 4 in Weatherford, Texas. The gas ignited, sending flames hundreds of feet into the air. Vehicles, equipment, and power lines in the area were destroyed, but, there were no injuries.[164]

May 16: 63,000 US gallons (240,000 L) of gasoline spilled into an old stripping pit that covers a three-acre area in Coal Township, Pennsylvania. The Kerris and Helfrick company owns the property where the gas leak occurred, and the excavator, was working for the company when he accidentally ruptured the Sunoco Logistics 14-inch petroleum pipeline. The gasoline was mostly absorbed into areas of soil, fill and coal strippings at the site.[165] Several residents made U.S. Rep. Christopher P. Carney aware of complaints about gasoline odors in residential basements. "Moreover, many residents are legitimately concerned about groundwater contamination as well as a host of future problems associated with the spill," Carney wrote to Department of Environmental Protection Secrearty Kathleen McGinty.[166] The pipeline was installed in 1964 by the Atlantic Richfield Co.(ARCO) and purchased in 1990 by Sunoco. On Sept. 29, the PADEP Environmental Cleanup program finalized a consent order and agreement with Mallard Contracting, which included a $45,000 civil penalty covering both DEP’s response costs and a fine for violations of the Pa. Solid Waste Management Act.[167]

The 2007 New York City steam explosion, on July 18.

In August, a gas compressor turbine caught fire inside BP's Gathering Center 1 in Alaska, after an oil hose ruptured and spewed flammable liquid across the motor. A mechanic on patrol in the facility — seeing smoke — fled the room as the turbine burst into flames. Automatic fire and gas alarms were never triggered. A subsequent investigation by Alaska state authorities found that a ruptured hydraulic oil hose was jerry-rigged in a position that chaffed against the turbine's hot engine. The investigation also found that the facility's fire and gas detectors were not powered on at the time.[168]

On October 8, a gas pipeline at a gas storage facility in Salem, Michigan ruptured & caught fire. Siding was melted on nearby homes.[169]

An ethylene pipeline explosion early on October 18, was heard for miles around Port Arthur, Texas, waking residents. The following fire spread to a nearby butadiene pipeline, causing it to rupture and burn. Later, over 300 residents sued the pipeline's owners for health issues claimed to be caused from the chemicals released by the accident. External corrosion of the ethylene pipeline caused the first pipeline failure.[170][171]

A 12-inch propane pipeline exploded, killing two people, and injuring five others, near Carmichael in the southeast portion of Clarke County, Mississippi on November 1. The NTSB determined the probable cause was an LF-ERW seam failure. During hydrostatic testing of the pipeline after repair, another LF-ERW seam failed nearby. Inadequate education of residents near the pipeline about the existence of this pipeline, and how to respond to a pipeline accident, were also cited as a factors in the deaths.[172]

On November 12, three teen boys drilled into an ammonia pipeline in Tampa Bay, Florida, causing an ammonia leak, and later claimed they did it due to stories of money being hidden inside that pipeline. The leak took 2 days to be capped. One of the teens had serious chemical burns from the ammonia. Residents within a half miles from the leak were evacuated. PHMSA later noted the pipeline company failed to adequately pre-plan for emergencies with the local Fire Agency, as required by CFR 195.402(c)(12).[173]

On November 13, 2007, Enbridge discovered a leak on their 34-inch Line 3 at Mile Post 912, near Clearbrook, Minnesota. Later, the pipeline exploded during repairs, on November 27, causing the deaths of two employees. DOT officials said that two Enbridge workers died in a crude oil explosion as they worked to make repairs on the former Lakehead system pipeline. Enbridge was cited for failing to safely and adequately perform maintenance and repair activities, clear the designated work area from possible sources of ignition, and hire properly trained and qualified workers.[174][175]

Two men were driving east in a pickup truck on Interstate 20 Near Delhi, Louisiana, when a 30-inch gas transmission pipeline exploded. One of the men were killed, and the other injured. External corrosion was later identified as the cause of the failure.[176][177]

2008[edit]

A pipeline ruptured at a filet weld, leaking natural gasoline in Oologah, Oklahoma on January 5, 2008. 690 barrels of the gasoline were lost.[178][179]

A pipeline split open on January 7, near Denver City, Texas, spilling 1.3 million US gallons (4,900 m3) of crude oil. The pipeline company failed to detect and stop the leak for more than 24 hours. ERW seam failure appears to be the cause.[180][181]

A natural gas pipeline compressor station exploded and caught fire on February 5, near Hartsville, Tennessee, and was believed to have been caused by a tornado hitting the facility.[182]

On February 15, a 20-inch gas pipeline exploded and burned in Hidalgo County, Texas, closing road FM490.[183]

In an explosion that could be felt for miles, a home in a Columbia, Missouri neighborhood exploded on March 14, causing fatal injuries to the elderly couple living there. Problems with the gas distribution line there were blamed for the explosion. Another home nearby also suffered damage.[184]

A crew boring to install a new gas main hit an existing 4-inch gas line in McKinney, Texas on May 16. Escaping gas caused 2 homes to explode, and 1 other home to catch fire. 3 people were burned from this incident.[185]

On July 28, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois ordered Apex Oil Company Inc., to clean up ground water and soil contamination, at an expected cost of at least $150 million. During the period 1967 through 1988, Apex Oil's legal predecessor, Clark Oil and Refining Corp., released gasoline from leaking pipelines and other spills, that commingled with other responsible parties' releases and resulted in the large plume of refined petroleum substances beneath Hartford, Illinois. Vapors from the underground plume of millions of gallons of leaked and spilled petroleum products have migrated into homes in the village, causing years of fires, explosions, and evacuations.[186]

A 20-inch crude oil pipeline ruptured near Golden Gate, Illinois on August 10. About 243,000 gallons of crude were spilled, with about 33,000 gallons being lost. The cause was listed as a pipe seam failure.[187][188][189]

A 36-inch gas pipeline failed near Stairtown, Texas on August 28, causing a fire with flames 400 feet (120 m) tall. The failure was caused by external corrosion.[190][191]

On August 29, a 24-inch gas transmission pipeline ruptured in Cooper County, Missouri. Corrosion had caused the pipeline to lose 75% of its wall thickness in the failure area.[192]

Workers constructing a new pipeline hit an existing natural gas pipeline in Wheeler County, Texas, on September 9. 2 workers were burned by this accident.[193]

A 30-inch Williams Companies gas pipeline ruptured and gas ignited near Appomattox, Virginia on September 14. 2 homes were destroyed by the fire. External corrosion was the cause of the failure.[194][195]

A ruptured pipeline causes a fire at a Pipeline Terminal in Pasadena, Texas on September 23. One worker was killed, and another injured, with about 190,000 US gallons (720,000 L) of product being lost. The failure was caused by internal corrosion.[196][197]

On October 3, a crew working on a Turnpike expansion drill into a petroleum products pipeline in Hamilton, New Jersey. Over 25,000 US gallons (95,000 L) of diesel fuel were spilled.[198]

On October 3, construction equipment hit a Mid Valley Pipeline Company pipeline in Florence, Kentucky, spilling 3,650 barrels of crude oil.[199]

On the night of November 15, a gas compressor for a pipeline at an entry exploded and burned near Godley, Texas. The fire spread to another company's gas compressor station next to it. A 24-inch gas pipeline had to be shut down to stop the fire. There were no injuries, and damages were estimated at 2 million dollars.[200]

A gasoline release from a Sunoco petroleum pipeline occurred on November 25, near a retail mall in Murrysville, PA. Officials said the release occurred from the 6-inch line at about 9:30 a.m. while a Sunoco Logistics crew was working on a ball valve. It was suspected the ball valve was improperly installed. The failure resulted in the evacuation of numerous stores, restaurants and roads in the immediate vicinity due to the dousing of gasoline and subsequent vapors emitting from the 11,760 US gallons (44,500 L) of spilled product.[201]

2009[edit]

On January 4, 2009, a 6.625-inch storage well line operated by Columbia Gas Transmission Company in Elk View (near Charleston), Kanawha County, WV, ruptured due to internal corrosion pitting complicated by low impact toughness of the pipe material, causing $29,011 in damage.[202]

An accidental massive gas release at Pump Station 1 of the trans-Alaskan pipeline (Alyeska Pipeline Service Company) on January 15 threatened the site at the time. The company that runs the pipeline acknowledges a fire or explosion, had the gas ignited, could have imperiled the station's 60-plus workers and caused "an extended shutdown" of oil fields. There was no ignition or explosion. The incident occurred as BP workers used a cleaning device called a pig to swab oil out of an old pipeline the company was preparing to decommission. The 34-inch pipe was among major Prudhoe trunk lines found in 2006 to be ravaged with corrosion, due to BP's admitted lack of proper maintenance. A large volume of gas then bypassed the pig somehow, and rushed to Pump Station 1, a key asset through which every drop of oil coming off the North Slope must pass.[203]

On February 1, a gas pipeline explosion rocked the area 2 miles (3.2 km) east of Carthage, Texas.[204]

On February 11, an explosion & fire occurred on a pipeline near a natural gas treatment plant, near Carthage, Texas. There were no injuries.[205]

A rupture of pipeline near Cygnet, Ohio, owned by Philadelphia-based Sunoco, resulted in one of the largest oil spills in Wood County history. At approximately 5:00 p.m. on February 18, the company discovered the release at the pump station and terminal located in Cygnet, Ohio.[206] Upon learning of the release, the company immediately shut down the pipeline, stopped operations at the pump station and terminal, notified the appropriate authorities, and began an emergency response. As of 11:05 a.m. ET on February 19, the release had been stopped from the pipe. The damaged pipeline, which was operating at the time, released 1,250 barrels (199 m3) of crude oil into a farm field. Eventually, 782 of the 1,250 barrels (199 m3) released were recovered. Some of the crude oil, approximately 200 barrels (32 m3), did contaminate a local creek. There were no fatalities, or injuries.[207][208]

A gas pipeline bursts near Hobe City (near Port Salerno, Florida) on May 4, injuring 2 people on the Florida Turnpike from flying debris. The escaping gas does not ignite.[209]

A natural gas pipeline explodes and catches fire on May 5, near Rockville, Indiana in Parke County, about 24 miles (39 km) north of Terre Haute, Indiana. PHMSA indicated the possibility of external corrosion in its Corrective Action Order (CAO) to the pipeline company. Pictures have been released around the area showing the damage caused. 49 homes were evacuated in a one-mile (1.6 km) area of the explosion. No injuries reported.[210]

An Enbridge pipeline pig sending trap in Superior, Wisconsin leaked on May 21 from operator error, spilling about 6500 gallons of crude oil. 700 cubic yards of contaminated soil had to be removed.[211][212]

On July 15, an explosion occurred at a natural gas metering station under construction, while it was being pressure tested with nitrogen, in Smith County, Mississippi. One worker was killed, and two others injured. There was no fire.[213]

On August 17, a pipeline was found leaking by an aerial patrol in Atoka County, Oklahoma. 50 barrels (7.9 m3) of diesel fuel were estimated to have been released as a result of this accident, and none of it was recovered.[214]

A leaking pipeline carrying jet fuel was accidentally ignited by a pipeline repair crew in Upton County, Texas, on October 7.[215]

On November 5, two people were hurt when an El Paso Natural Gas pipeline exploded in the Texas Panhandle near Bushland, Texas. The explosion left a hole about 30 yards by 20 yards and close to 15 feet (4.6 m) deep. The blast shook homes, melted window blinds and shot flames hundreds of feet into the air. The home nearest the blast — about 100 yards away — was destroyed, and 3 residents from that homes were injured. About 200 residents in the area were evacuated. Bushland is in Potter County, about 15 miles (24 km) west of Amarillo. The failure was in an abandoned tap, but the exact failure reason remains unknown.[216][217][218][219]

A fire at a gas compressor station near Cameron, West Virginia on November 14 slightly burned one employee, and causes $5.6 million of damage to the facility.[220]

A Minnesota Pipeline crude oil pipeline leaked December 3 to 4 in Todd County, Minnesota, spilling about 5,000 barrels of crude. Pipeline workers on Dec. 3 had been repairing sections of the 16-inch pipe in a rural area. They left on the afternoon of Dec. 3, and the spill occurred during the evening hours of Dec. 3–4.[221][222][223]

On December 23, a crude oil pipeline started leaking in Galveston, Texas. There was no fire or explosion as a result of the accident, and an estimated 120 barrels (19 m3) of crude oil were released to the environment.[224]

A newly built 42-inch gas transmission pipeline near Philo, Ohio failed on the second day of operation. There was no fire, but evacuations resulted. Several indications of pipe deformation were found.(November 14, 2009)[225][226]

2010s[edit]
2010[edit]

On January 2, Enbridge's Line 2 ruptured near Neche, North Dakota, releasing about 3,784 barrels of crude oil, of which only 2,237 barrels of were recovered. The cause was a material defect.[227][228]

A gas pipeline exploded near Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, in January, killing a pipeline employee.[229]

On February 1, a plumber trying to unclog a sewer line in St. Paul, Minnesota ruptured a gas service line that has been "cross bored" through the house's sewer line. The plumber and resident escape the home moments before as an explosion and following fire destroyed the home. The Minnesota Office of Pipeline Safety ordered that gas utility, Xcel, to check for more cross bored gas lines. In the following year, 25,000 sewer lines inspected showed 57 other cross bored gas lines. In Louisville, Kentucky, 430 gas line cross bores were found in 200 miles (320 km) of a sewer project, including some near schools and a hospital. The NTSB had cited such cross bore incidents as a known hazard since 1976.[230][231]

On February 25, a natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline ruptured near Pond Creek, Oklahoma, releasing over 575,000 US gallons (2,180,000 L) of NGL's, and forcing road closures. There was no fire.[232][233]

At approximately 8:10 am CST, March 1, Mid-Valley Pipeline identified a release of crude oil in the manifold area of the Mid-Valley tank farm in Longview, TX. Crude oil was observed “gushing” from the soil in the manifold area, and 198 barrels of crude oil were estimated to have been released and 196 barrels were recovered from the secondary containment area within Mid-Valley’s site.[234]

A 24-inch gas pipeline burst, but did not ignite near Pampa, Texas on March 15.[235]

On March 25, there was a release of 1700 barrels of Vacuum Gas Oil (VGO) from the FM-1 pipeline into an open in-ground valve pit and the surrounding area in the West Yard of the Sunoco, R&M Philadelphia refinery in Philadelphia, PA. The area was under the control of the Operator in a fenced off area that is off-limits to the public.[236]

A crude oil pipeline ruptures near Green River, Wyoming, on April 5. At least 84,000 US gallons (320,000 L) of crude were spilled. Corrosion in the pipeline was the cause.[31]

Enbridge discovered a leak on the 26-inch Line 2 on April 17, near Deer River, Minnesota. This leak was due to a crack-like feature associated with the longitudinal weld seam on the inside of the pipe.

On April 23, near Solomon, Kansas, a pipeline ruptured due to previous excavation damage. About 1,659 barrels of natural gasoline were lost.[163]

A BP pipeline carrying gasoline leaked nearly 93,000 US gallons (350,000 L) into a farm field over the Memorial Day weekend. The leak occurred in Constantine Township, St. Joseph County, Michigan.[31][237]

On June 7, a 36-inch gas pipeline explosion and fire in Johnson County, Texas, was caused by workers installing poles for electrical lines. One worker killed, and six were injured. Confusion over the location and status of the construction work lead to the pipeline not being marked beforehand.[238][239]

On June 8, construction workers hit an unmarked 14-inch gas gathering pipeline near Darrouzett, Texas. Two workers were killed.[238][240]

On June 12, a Chevron crude oil pipeline, damage by lightning, ruptured, causing 800 barrels (130 m3) of crude to spill into Red Butte Creek in Salt Lake City, Utah. Crude then flowed in a pond in Liberty Park.[241]

A landowner operating a bulldozer hit an 8-inch LPG/propane pipeline near Thomson, Georgia on July 5. Later, the propane fumes ignited, killing the adult son of the landowner, and igniting fires that destroyed a trailer home and woodlands.[242]

On July 26, Enbridge Energy Partners LLP (Enbridge), reported that a 30-inch (760 mm) pipeline belonging to Enbridge burst in Marshall, Michigan. Enbridge had numerous alarms from the affected Line 6B, but controllers thought the alarms were from phase separation, and the leak was not reported to Enbridge for 17 hours. Enbridge estimates over 800,000 US gallons (3,000,000 L) of crude oil leaked into Talmadge Creek, a waterway that feeds the Kalamazoo River,[243][244]whereas EPA reports over 1,139,569 gallons of oil have been recovered as of November 2011.[245] On July 27, 2010, an Administrative Order was issued by U.S. EPA requiring the performance of removal actions in connection with the facility. The Order requires Enbridge to immediately conduct removal of a discharge or to mitigate or prevent a substantial threat of a discharge of oil and to submit a Work Plan for the cleanup activities that was to include a Health and Safety Plan,[246] as required by 29 CFR 1910.120 (HAZWOPER). An oil spill cleanup contractor from Texas, Hallmark, bussed numerous undocumented workers to Battle Creek to work on the cleanup of oil spill and had them work in unsafe conditions.[247] In 2012, the NTSB later cited known but unrepaired cracks and external corrosion as the cause.[248]

On August 10, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Justice Department announced that Plains All American Pipeline and several of its operating subsidiaries have agreed to spend approximately $41 million to upgrade 10,420 miles (16,770 km) of crude oil pipeline operated in the United States. The settlement resolves Plains’ Clean Water Act violations for 10 crude oil spills in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Kansas, and requires the company to pay a $3.25 million civil penalty.[249]

A construction crew installing a gas pipeline in Roberts County, Texas hits an unmarked pipeline on August 25, seriously burning one man.[250]

A gas compressor station in Shongaloo, Louisiana on August 24 injured 1 worker.[251]

On August 27, a LPG pipeline sprang a leak in Gilboa, New York, forcing the evacuation of 23 people. The cause was stress corrosion cracking. There were no injuries or ignition.[252][253][254]

On September 9, a pipeline leaks crude oil near Lockport, Illinois. EPA officials say the spill is near wetlands that house several endangered species. Federal officials say about 270,000 US gallons (1,000,000 L) of oil were released in Lockport and Romeoville, about 35 miles (56 km) southwest of Chicago.[255]

On Thursday, September 9, a high pressure gas pipeline exploded in San Bruno, CA, a suburb of San Francisco. The blast destroyed 38 homes and damaged 120 homes. Eight people died and many were injured. Ten acres of brush also burned. Later, PG&E was unable to supply the California Public Utilities Commission with documents on how PG&E established pressure limits on some of its gas transmission pipelines. It was also revealed that this pipeline had 26 leaks between Milpitas and San Francisco during the time of 1951 to 2009, with some of the leak causes listed in records as "unknown".Later hydrostatic testing of the same pipeline that failed found a pinhole leak, and a previously damaged section blew out.[256][257][258][259][260]

A 20-inch diameter Columbia Gas Transmission Company pipeline failed in Lawrence County, Kentucky on September 9. While there was no fire or evacuations, the condition of this uncoated, non-cathodic protected, unknown grade pipeline caused PHMSA to enter into a Consent Order to eventually replace this pipeline.[261]

A repair crew was working on a corroded gas pipe in Cairo, Georgia on September 28, when the line exploded. One crew member was killed, and 3 others burned.[262]

A gas pipeline under construction in Grand Prairie, Texas was running a cleaning pig on October 15 without a pig "trap" at the end of the pipe. The 150 pound pig was expelled from the pipeline with enough force to fly 500 feet (150 m), and crash through the side of a house. No one was injured.[263]

On November 12, three men working on natural gas lines were injured when a pipeline ruptured in Monroe, Louisiana.[264]

A Tennessee Gas Pipeline 30-inch gas pipeline failed at Natchitoches, Louisiana on November 30. There was no fire, but the pipeline had a Magnetic Flux smart pig test earlier in the year that indicated no flaws in the pipeline. The failure was at a crack in a wrinkle bend. The deadly 1965 gas pipeline accident occurred on a different pipeline owned by the same company nearby.[265]

A valve on a crude oil pipeline leaked about 500 barrels (79 m3) of crude in Salt Lake City, Utah on December 1. This failure was only 100 yards from a June 2010 failure on the same pipeline.[266]

A pipeline was discovered leaking gasoline near Livingston, Illinois, on December 2.[267]

On December 17, a gas line fire and explosion just outside of Corpus Christi, Texas city limits leaves one person critically injured. A man was working on removing an abandoned pipeline when it exploded, and the man's face was severely burned.[268]

A crude oil pipeline was discovered leaking into the Dominguez Channel in the Port of Los Angeles, California on December 21. Over 1,000 gallons of crude oil was recovered, but the pipeline company was alleged to have failed to report the spill to State or Federal pipeline authorities. A 61 count criminal complaint was later filed in this accident.[269]

A pipeline at an underground gas storage facility in Covington County, Mississippi on December 28, forcing the evacuation of about 2 dozen families for over a week.[270]

2011[edit]

On January 11, personnel from Millennium Pipeline noticed that gas transmission pipeline leaking in Tioga County, New York. This 30-inch diameter pipeline was built in 2007 & 2008. A pinhole in a rejected girth weld was found to be the cause of the failure. It appears that during the course of the construction project for the line, the subject pipe section was inadvertently picked up and subsequently installed in the pipeline. PHMSA ordered testing of this pipeline for similar flaws.[271]

A 12-inch cast iron gas main leaking Philadelphia, Pennsylvania explodes, killing a repair crew member and injuring 6 others on January 18.[272][273]

Multiple gas pressure regulators failed, and caused a gas pressure surge in Fairport Harbor, Ohio, on January 24, causing gas fires in 11 homes, and one apartment. 150 gas appliances were damaged or destroyed, but there were no injuries. Gas company Dominion East Ohio says it found fluids and debris in a failed regulator. A year after the explosion, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio recommended a $500,000 fine for Dominion.[274][275][276][277]

Five people were killed, and eight homes were destroyed, in a gas explosion and fire in Allentown, Pennsylvania on February 9. The NTSB had warned UGI about cast iron gas mains needing replacement after the 1990 gas explosion in that city. Between 1976 and the date of the letter, July 10, 1992, two more gas explosions occurred. Three people were killed, 23 injured and 11 homes were destroyed or damaged in those explosions. UGI was cited in 2012 for several safety violations, including a lack of valves on their gas system.[278][279][280][281]

Late on February 10, a Tennessee Gas Pipeline 36-inch gas transmission pipeline exploded and burned near Lisbon, Ohio. No injuries resulted. The cause was from stress on a girth weld on the pipeline. A failure on another girth weld on the pipeline system led to a PHMSA Consent Agreement.[282][283][284]

Early on February 24, a pipeline near Texas City, Texas ruptured, sending up to 5,000 US gallons (19,000 L) of gasoline into Bayou Pierre.[285][286]

On March 1, a Tennessee Gas Pipeline gas transmission pipeline failed near Cumberland, Ohio. A material or weld defect was the cause.[287][288]

Early on March 17, a 20-inch steel natural gas line running through a Minneapolis, Minnesota neighborhood ruptured and gas from it ignited, caused evacuations to buildings nearby, and Interstate 35W was closed from downtown Minneapolis to Highway 62. There were no injuries. The Minnesota Office of Pipeline Safety later found the pipe there wasn't designed to handle the weight of soil and passing cars pressing down on it, and efforts to shore up the pipeline were incorrectly carried out.[289][290][291]

A farmer and rancher near White Oak Township, Michigan smelled gasoline on April 13, and discovered gasoline from a products pipeline leaking into a drainage ditch. As of late September, an estimated 460,000 gallons of gasoline had been released, with about 111,000 gallons of it recovered.[292]

On May 7, a threaded connection failed on a Keystone Pipeline pump at a station in Sargent County, North Dakota, spilling about 400 barrels of crude oil. Due to a number of other leaks on this pipeline system, Keystone's owner, TransCanada Corporation, was given a Corrective Action Order by PHMSA.[293]

An 8-inch NGL pipeline failed in Romeoville, Illinois on May 14, leaking about 4200 gallons of butane. Corrosion inside a casing under a road was the cause of the failure. Corrosion only 2.5 feet from the failure had been seen by a smart pig run in 2007, but was not within action limits at the time.[294]

On May 19, a 10-inch crude oil pipeline ruptured near Maysville, Oklahoma. Over 42,000 US gallons (160,000 L) of crude were lost. There was no fire. Internal pipeline corrosion was the cause.[295][296]

A 2-inch lateral on a crude oil pipeline rupture in Huntington Beach, California on July 1. A major road, Goldenwest Street, had to be closed for cleaning and pipeline repairs.[297]

Late on July 1, a 12-inch Exxon Mobil crude oil pipeline. also known as the Silvertip Pipeline, ruptured, and spilled about 63,000 gallons of oil into the Yellowstone River in south-central Montana. There was confusion in the pipeline control room, causing a delayed pipeline shutdown. Some residents of Laurel, Montana had to be evacuated.[298][299] The break near Billings fouled the riverbank and forced municipalities and irrigation districts to close intakes.[300][301] Exxon later increased the spill size estimate to 1500 barrels in January 2012 after seeing the damage to the pipeline.[302] About 140 people were evacuated starting about 12:15 a.m. Saturday due to concerns about possible explosions and the overpowering fumes. All were allowed to return after instruments showed petroleum odors had decreased,[303] although no information was available regarding the concentrations of benzene in air. Speculation involves high water flow in the Yellowstone River may have scoured the river bed and exposed the pipe. Consequently, with three oil refineries are located in the Billings area, the fire chief for the city of Laurel said he asked all three to turn off the flow of oil in their pipelines under the river after the leak was reported. Exxon Mobil and Cenex Harvest Refinery did so, and that Conoco Phillips said its pipe was already shutdown.[303] Cenex had a release into the Yellowstone River in September 2002. Exxon Mobil later announced the cleanup would cost $135 million.[304][305][306]

On July 20, a six month old 30-inch natural gas pipeline exploded near Gillette, Wyoming, creating a 60-foot (18 m) crater. There was no fire, nor any injuries. Construction or installation issues caused the failure.[307][308]

A pipeline carrying jet fuel ruptured in Mango, Florida on July 22. About 31,500 US gallons (119,000 L) of fuel spilled. There was no fire or injuries.[309]

On August 13, an 8-inch NGL pipeline ruptured near Onawa, Iowa at a Missouri River crossing, during flooding conditions. About 818 barrels of Natural Gasoline was lost. There were no evacuations or injuries, but 2 other pipelines in the same right of way were forced to shut down.[310][311][312][313]

On August 17, Kinder Morgan’s Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America had a flash fire and explosion at a plant south of Herscher, Illinois. Five employees went to the hospital. Kinder Morgan was later cited for pipeline and workplace safety violations.[314][315]

A pipeline carrying heating oil was hit by construction workers in East Providence, Rhode Island on August 31, spraying oil on roofs, trees, and pavement, and flowed into storm drains. At least 56,000 US gallons (210,000 L) of oil were spilled.[316]

A Cupertino, California condominium was gutted August 31, after a plastic pipeline fitting cracked, filling the garage with natural gas that exploded just minutes after the owner left for lunch. PG&E later found six other plastic pipe failures near the blast site. The line was an especially problematic type of pipe manufactured by DuPont called Aldyl-A. PG&E has 1,231 miles (1,981 km) of the early-1970s-vintage pipe in its system. Federal regulators singled out pre-1973 Aldyl-A starting in 2002 as being at risk of failing because of premature cracking. Explosions caused by failed Aldyl-A and other types of plastic pipe have killed more than 50 people in the United States since 1971, the federal government says.[317]

A 10-inch LPG pipeline failed on September 8 in Mitchell County, Texas. The escaping gas ignited, starting a small brush fire. The cause of the failure was a crack in the weld of a repair sleeve from bending and heat hardening. There were no injuries.[318]

On September 20, a farmer digging to lay drainage tile hit a 10-inch gasoline pipeline near Aurelius, New York, spilling about 3,300 US gallons (12 m3) of gasoline. There was no fire or injuries.[319]

A 2-inch crude oil gathering pipeline failed in Oklahoma on October 12, spilling about 120 barrels of oil. There were no injuries or fire from the failure.[320]

Early on November 3, an explosion and fire hit a gas Columbia Gas Transmission pipeline compressor station at Artemas in Mann Township, Bedford County, Pennsylvania. There were no injuries. The cause was internal corrosion.[321][322]

On November 8, a contractor for Vectren Corp. working on a bare gas main replacement project broke a "short stub" on the main, then failed to notify New Albany, Indiana authorities about the leak. Gas migrated through the soil, & built up in a nearby house, then exploded. 5 people had to be hospitalized.[323]

A crew working on a waterline hit a gas distribution pipeline in Fairborn, Ohio on November 12, leading to a gas explosion that killed one man, and injured 5 others, including children.[324]

On November 16, a Tennessee Gas Pipeline 36-inch gas transmission pipeline exploded and burned near Glouster, Ohio. There were 2 people injured, with 3 homes and a barn destroyed, and a barn damaged. The pipeline failed at a girth weld, with landsliding causing more stress on the weld.[325][326]

Late on November 21, a Tennessee Gas Pipeline 24-inch gas transmission pipeline exploded and burned near Batesville, Mississippi. 20 homes were evacuated for a time, but there were no injuries or major property damage. The pipeline failed at a sleeve over a wrinkle bend installed in 1946.[327]

On December 3, a Williams Companies gas transmission pipeline exploded and burned in Marengo County, Alabama. A 47 foot section of the pipe was hurled more than 200 feet from the failure area. The gas burned for several hours, and a nearby pipeline was damaged. There were no injuries, or serious property damage. External corrosion was the cause of the failure, due to issues with the pipeline coating, the cathodic protection level, and the local soil corrosiveness.[328][329][330]

On December 6, explosions and fire erupted at a natural gas pipeline compressor station in Sublette County, Wyoming. Two workers were injured.[331]

On December 10, a landowner using a bulldozer hit an 8-inch and a 12-inch petroleum pipelines near Nemaha, Nebraska, rupturing both lines. The spill size was estimated to be 119,000 gallons of gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel fuel. Some of the fuels flowed into a creek leading into Jasper Creek. There were questions about the depth of soil coverage for this pipeline.[332][333][334][335]

A 42-inch natural gas transmission pipeline failed and ignited at a valve on December 10 in Cache County, Utah.[336][337]

2012[edit]

A gas pipeline exploded and burned in Estill County, Kentucky on the evening of January 2. Flames were reported reaching over 1,000 feet high. Residents up to a mile away from the failure were evacuated. There were no injuries.[338]

A forest fire caused a gas pipeline to explode and burn in Floyd County, Kentucky on January 7. There were no injuries from this incident.[339]

On January 9, a man was killed, and another person injured, in a fiery house explosion from a leaking 4-inch cast iron gas main installed in 1950 in Austin, Texas. Gas had been smelled in the area for several weeks prior to this. Gas company crews had looked along the affected property for a leak, but were unable to find it.[273][340]

A Sunoco pipeline ruptured and spilled about 117,000 gallons of gasoline in Wellington, Ohio, late on January 12. Some residents were evacuated for a week.[341][342]

On January 13, an 8-inch gas pipeline exploded and burned in a vacant agricultural field in Rio Vista, California. There were no injuries or evacuations.[343]

A Tennessee Gas Pipeline gas compressor had a major leak "that sounded like a rocket" in Powell County, Kentucky, forcing evacuations of nearby residents on January 14. There was no fire or injuries reported.[344]

A contractor excavating for a communications company caused a massive gas explosion and fire at a condominium complex on January 16 in West Haverstraw, New York, injuring 2 firefighters & 2 utility workers. Afterwards, it was found that the excavator's insurance will be insufficient to cover all of the property damage of the incident.[345]

On January 18, the original Colonial Pipeline mainline failed in Belton, South Carolina, spilling about 13,500 gallons of petroleum product. The failure was caused by internal corrosion.[346]

Workers in Topeka, Kansas were installing a yard sprinkler system on January 30, hit a gas line. Gas from the leak later on exploded in a nearby home, burning a 73-year-old woman, who died several weeks later.[347][348]

On January 31, a Shell Oil Company fuel pipeline to the Milwaukee, Wisconsin Mitchell International Airport was found to be leaking. Jet fuel had been smelled for about 2 weeks in the area, and was found in runoff water in the area. The cause was from external corrosion. About 9,000 gallons of fuel were spilled. In 2014, a Shell employee was scheduled to plead guilty to charges of falsifying records of the pipeline.[349][350]

A Florida Gas Transmission Company 30-inch gas transmission pipeline burst near Baton Rouge, Louisiana on February 13. Residents in the area were evacuated for a time, but there was no fire.[351][352]

On February 15, 2012, in Arenac County, Michigan, oil was discovered in the soil around a 30-inch Enbridge crude oil pipeline. About 800 gallons of crude oil was spilled.[353]

Two cars that were drag racing went off the road they were on, and crash through a fence and into a crude oil pipeline in New Lenox, Illinois on March 3. The pipeline was ruptured, and the crude oil ignited. Two men from the vehicles were killed, and 3 others seriously burned.[354][355]

On March 5, a leak at an Enid, Oklahoma pipeline storage facility spread propane fumes in the area, forcing evacuations. There was no fire or explosion.[356]

A crude oil pipeline leaked near Grand Isle, Louisiana on March 17, spilling as much as 8,400 gallons of crude oil. There were no injuries reported.[357]

On March 29, an employee accidentally left a valve open during maintenance work on a Williams Companies gas compressor station near Springville Township, Pennsylvania. Later, gas leaked through the valve, causing alarms to evacuate workers in the compressor building. Later, the gas exploded and burned. There were no injuries. It was also found there are no agencies enforcing rules on rural gas facilities in that state.[358][359]

A 12-inch gas pipeline exploded and burned for 5 hours near Gary, Texas on April 4. There were no injuries, but the rupture site was only 200 feet from that pipeline's compressor station.[360]

On April 6, 2 gas company workers were mildly burned when attempting to fix a leak on a 4-inch gas pipeline in DeSoto County, Mississippi. The pipeline exploded and burned during the repairs.[361]

A gas pipeline exploded and burned in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, on April 9. The accident was reported first by a satellite monitoring the area to the NRC. There were no injuries.[362]

Two men escaped with only minor burns after a bulldozer they were using hit a 24-inch gas pipeline near Hinton, Iowa on April 25. Authorities later announced the men did not call 811 for an underground utility locate.[363]

On April 28, an ExxonMobil 20/22-inch-diameter pipeline ruptured near Torbert in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, about 20 miles west of Baton Rouge, and crude oil spilled into the surrounding area, and flowed into an unnamed tributary connected to Bayou Cholpe. About 117,000 gallons of crude were spilled, with about 37,000 gallons being lost. The pipeline failed due to a manufacturing defect.[364][365][366]

A 26-inch gas transmission pipeline ruptured on June 6 in a compressor station near Laketon in northeastern Gray County, Texas. Gas escaped from the 50-foot-long rupture, igniting, leaving a crater 30 feet in diameter, burning 2 acres of agricultural area and telephone poles. There were no injuries.[367]

On June 8, near Canadian, Texas, a trackhoe operator suffered burns, after a fire from leaking 4-inch gas-gathering pipeline that was undergoing maintenance. Fumes entered the engine of the trackhoe and ignited.[368]

A contractor was killed and two others injured after an explosion at a BP gas compressor station in Durango, Colorado on June 25. BP, Halliburton, and the other contractors were fined $7,000 each for safety violations in that work.[369][370]

A West Shore Pipe Line petroleum products pipeline burst near Jackson, Wisconsin on July 17, releasing about 54,000 gallons of gasoline. At least one family self evacuated due to the leak. At least 44 water wells nearby were contaminated from benzine in the gasoline, including a municipal well. A LF-ERW seam failure was suspected as the cause. Further testing revealed that at least 26 other areas on this pipeline needed repairs, with 22 within the Jackson Marsh Wildlife Area.[371][372][373][374][375]

A 14-inch gas gathering pipeline exploded and burned on July 18 near Intracoastal City, Louisiana. There were no injuries or major property damage reported.[376]

On July 23, a compressor station operated by Williams Companies in Windsor, New York was venting gas in a "routine procedure" — during a lightning storm — when the vent was ignited by lightning, causing a fireball "hundreds of feet into the air"[377][378]

An Enbridge crude oil pipeline ruptured in Grand Marsh, Wisconsin, releasing an estimated 1,200 barrels of crude oil. The pipeline had been installed in 1998. Flaws in the longitudinal welds had been seen during X-ray checks of girth welds.[158][379]

4 contract workers were injured during a flash fire at a Wyoming gas processing plant on August 22.[380]

A jet fuel pipeline near Chicago, Illinois began leaking on August 27. The burst pipeline spilled an estimated 42,000 gallons of jet fuel into a ditch that empties into the Calumet Sag Channel in Palos Heights, Illinois. External corrosion was the cause of the pipeline failure.[381][382][383]

On August 28, a Atmos Energy repair crew struck an 8-inch gas main in McKinney, Texas, causing a fire. 4 Atmos workers were treated for injuries. 1,000 Atmos gas customers lost gas service for a time.[384][385]

On September 6, a 10-inch gas gathering pipeline exploded and burned near Alice, Texas. Flames reached 100 feet high, and caused a 10 acre brush fire. There were no injuries.[386]

An explosion and fire hit a Crestwood Midstream Partners gas compressor station in Hood County, Texas on September 6. Heavy damage to a sheet metal building resulted, but, there were no injuries reported to crew there.[387]

A Colorado Interstate Gas gas compressor in Rio Blanco County, Colorado caught fire on September 11. There were no reported injuries.[388][389]

On September 24, an excavator struck a 4-inch natural gas line on Route 416 in Montgomery, New York. Escaping gas ignited, and it was 1 1/2 hours until the gas was shut off. There were no injuries.[390]

The operator of an excavator machine narrowly escaped serious injury in Lewiston, Idaho on November 19, when his machine hit a gas pipeline during road work. The resulting fire destroyed a railroad signal, along with several telephone poles, and road construction equipment. The depth of the pipeline has been misjudged at that location.[391][392]

On November 20, about 38,000 gallons of crude oil spilled from an Enbridge pipeline at a tank farm in Mokena, Illinois.[393][394]

Two men were injured in an explosion and fire at a natural gas production facility east of Price, Utah on November 20.[395]

On November 23, a gas company worker looking for the source of a reported gas leak in a Springfield, Massachusetts strip club pierce a gas line. The gas later exploded, injuring 21, devastating the strip club, and damaging numerous nearby buildings.[396]

On November 30, a heavy equipment operator punctured a 12-inch gas transmission pipeline, near the city of Madera, California. The adjacent highway, along with several rural roads, was shut down for hours, while homes and businesses in the area were evacuated.[397]

A malfunction in a gas compressor caused a fire on December 4, north of Fort Worth, Texas. There were no injuries.[398]

On December 5, a 16-inch gas pipeline at 500 psi of pressure exploded and burned near a natural gas plant in Goldsmith, Texas. A fireball 250 feet high was created after the explosion, destroying 12 to 15 utility poles, and caliche and rocks the size of bowling balls damaging a road. There were no injuries reported.[399]

On December 11, at approximately 12:40pm, a 20-inch gas pipeline owned by NiSource Inc., parent of Columbia Gas, exploded along I-77 between Sissonvilleand Pocatalico, West Virginia. Several people had minor injuries, 4 homes were destroyed, and other buildings damaged. Early reports announced the NTSB was investigating as to why alarms in the Control Room for this pipeline did not sound for this failure.[400][401][402][403]

On December 26, a 20-inch Florida Gas Transmission Company pipeline ruptured near Melbourne, Florida, ejecting a 20 foot section of the pipeline. There was no fire or injuries.[404]

2013[edit]

On January 15, a utility crew struck & ruptured a 4-inch gas pipeline in Lewisville, Texas, causing a nearby home to explode later on. The explosion killed a man.[405]

An independent contractor installing fiber-optic cable for a cable company in Kansas City, Missouri inadvertently struck an underground gas line on February 19. Gas later caught fire, and created an explosion that destroyed a popular local restaurant, killing one of the workers there, and injuring about 15 others near the scene.[406][407]

A tug towing a barge struck and ruptured a Chevron LPG pipeline at Bayou Perot, a marshy area on the borders of Jefferson Parish and Lafourche Parish, Louisiana on March 12. The tug Captain was severely burned when the escaping gas ignited, and died several weeks later from those injuries.[408][409]

On March 18, a Chevron 8-inch petroleum products pipeline ruptured along a seam, spilling diesel fuel into Willard Bay State Park near Ogden, Utah. Wildlife was coated with diesel, but, the fuel was prevented from entering into water supply intakes. About 25,000 gallons of diesel were spilled.[410][411]

A Williams Companies 24-inch gas gathering pipeline failed in Marshall County, West Virginia on March 22. There were no injuries.[412]

2013 Mayflower oil spill occurred when ExxonMobil's 20-inch Pegasus crude oil pipeline spilled near Mayflower, Arkansas on March 29, causing crude to flow through yards and gutters, and towards Lake Conway. Wildlife was coated in some places. Twenty-two homes were evacuated, due to the fumes and fire hazard. Some estimates say the total amount spilled could reach upwards of 300,000 gallons diluted bitumen were spilled. Hook cracks and extremely low impact toughness in the LF-ERW seam were identified as causes of the failure.[413][414][415][416]

On April 4, an explosion and fire occurred at a gas compressor station near Guthrie, Oklahoma. Nearby homes were evacuated. There were no injuries reported.[417]

A flash fire at a pipeline gas compressor station broke out when natural gas liquids ignited in Tyler County, West Virginia on April 11, seriously burning 3 workers, two of whom later died. The workers were performing pipeline pigging operations.[418][419]

On April 30, the Pegasus oil pipeline spilled a small amount of crude into a residential yard in Ripley County, Missouri, a month after the same pipe spewed thousands of barrels of crude in Arkansas. The Pegasus pipeline was out of service from the Mayflower, Arkansas spill, accounting for the minimal amount of oil spilled in Missouri.[420]

On May 9, diesel fuel was detected to be leaking from a Marathon pipeline in Indianapolis, Indiana. Over 20,000 gallons of diesel leaked, at a slow rate that was not detected by SCADA systems. Cleanup cause a nearby major road to be shut down for 5 days. There were no injuries reported.[421]

Late night on May 14, an explosion & fire hit a Williams Companies gas compressor station near Brooklyn Township, Pennsylvania. There were no reported injuries.[422]

On May 8, the Kinder Morgan Tejas pipeline compressor station near Crockett, Texas, required an emergency shutdown and subsequently had a fire that caused $7,502,188 in property damage.[423][424]

On May 30, 2 construction workers were injured, when a fire erupted during welding at a Williams Companies natural gas facility in Hunterdon County, New Jersey.[425]

A 12-inch gas transmission pipeline failed near Torrington, Wyoming on June 13. LF-ERW seam failure was suspected as cause. There was no fire or injuries.[426]

A 30-inch Florida Gas Transmission Company natural gas pipeline exploded and burned on June 18 near Franklinton, Louisiana. Power lines were damaged, causing a loss of electricity to 17,000 people, and a trailer was destroyed. There was no injuries reported.[427][428]

On July 4, a fire involved a gas compressor and a nearby ruptured 2-inch gas pipeline in Gilmore Township, Pennsylvania. There were no injuries.[429]

An 8-inch natural gas pipeline released gas from a rupture at 1,400 psi, for 90 minutes in New Franklin, Ohio on July 22, forcing 75 people to evacuate the area. Afterward, the local Fire Chief said that pipeline owners refused to give information to first responders in previous requests.[430]

Early on July 23, a downed 13,000 volt power line sparked a massive gas fire in Mamaroneck, New York when a gas main was damaged by the electricity. 3 automobiles were destroyed, and homes were threatened for a time.[431]

On July 26, a leaking BP 20-inch crude oil pipeline spilled 50 to 100 barrels of crude oil in Washington County, Oklahoma. Some of the crude spilled into a drainage ditch leading to a water reservoir.[432]

On the evening of August 12, a 10-inch NGL pipeline exploded & caused a massive propane-ethane mix fire in Erie, Illinois. A number of nearby residents were evacuated for a while, but, there were no injuries.[433]

A leak developed on a valve on Longhorn Pipeline in Austin, Texas during maintenance on August 14, spilling about 300 gallons of crude oil. There were no evacuations.[434]

Atmos Energy crews dug into a 4-inch gas pipeline in Overland Park, Kansas on September 2, causing an explosion and fire. There was no major damage or injuries.[435]

A 10-inch gas gathering pipeline ruptured & burned in Newton County, Texas on September 21. About a dozen people from nearby homes were evacuated for a time. There were no injuries.[436]

On September 24, a Denton TX city water utility worker ruptured a 1/2-inch gas pipeline in Denton, Texas, which immediately caused a fire that gave the worker minor burns. There was no other significant damage.[437]

A farmer near Tioga, North Dakota smelled oil for several days, before discovering a leaking 6-inch 20-year-old Tesoro pipeline under his wheat field on September 29. Crews tried to burn off the oil at first. The spill size was estimated at 865,000 gallons, and covered over 7 acres. There were no injuries. Corrosion was suspected as being the cause. Governor Jack Dalrymple said he wasn't told of the spill until October 9. It was estimated that it will take 2 to 3 years to clean up all the crude spilled, and cost 11 million dallars.[438][439]

On October 7, a gas pipeline burst in Howard County, Texas. There was no fire, but, dangerous hydrogen sulfide in the gas forced evacuations of nearby residents. There were no injuries.[440]

On October 7, authorities were notified of a Lion Oil Trading and Transportation crude oil pipeline leak in Columbia County, Arkansas. It was estimated that the leak started on September 21. Oil spread into a Horsehead Creek tributary.[441]

A 30-inch Northern Natural Gas pipeline exploded and burned in Harper County, Oklahoma on October 8. 220 feet of the pipe was ejected from the ground. Flames were seen for a number of miles, and 4 homes nearby were evacuated. Oklahoma Highway 283 was closed for several hours until the fire was determined to be under control and safe. There were no injuries.[442][443][444]

On October 29, a Koch Industries 8-inch pipeline spill about 400 barrels of crude oil near Smithville, Texas. The oil polluted a private stock pond and two overflow reservoirs.[445]

A Chevron operated 10-inch LPG pipeline was ruptured by contractors for the company installing a Cathodic protection system, near Milford, Texas, on November 14, causing a large fire, and forcing the evacuation of Milford and 200 students of a nearby school. A nearby 14-inch pipeline was threatened by the failure, but did not fail. There were no injuries reported.[446][447][448]

An ExxonMobil gas plant exploded and burned on November 17, near Kingsville, Texas. The plant burned for over a day, but there were no reported injuries.[449]

On November 18, a gas pipeline burst near Ranger, Texas, causing a fire in a field, with flames reaching 100 feet high. Some homes nearby were evacuated for a time. The owner of the pipeline, Hanlon Gas, had been installing a new compressor station, and they believe a malfunction led to the rupture and fire. There were no injuries reported.[450]

On November 28 a 30-inch Panhandle Eastern natural gas pipeline exploded in Houstonia, Missouri causing several nearby buildings to catch fire. There was a local evacuation but no injuries. Accident was similar to Panhandle Eastern explosion on August 29, 2008 [451]

On December 9, a 2-inch pipe on a propane dehydrator failed at the Dixie Pipeline Terminal in Apex, North Carolina, forcing evacuations & sheltering in place at nearby businesses. There was no fire or explosion.[452]

A Sunoco pipeline was found leaking gasoline on December 20, near Coal Township, Pennsylvania, from external corrosion. The initial spill size was reported as 2 gallons, but, later on, 480 tons of soil were removed as part of the remediation of that leak.[453][454][455]

On December 27, two natural gas company workers had minor burns when the pipeline they were working leaked, and the escaping gas exploded and ignited inShrewsbury, Massachusetts. Flames 30 feet high knocked out phone service in the area.[456]

2014[edit]

A 12-inch PSNC gas transmission pipeline exploded and burned in Asheville, North Carolina on January 10. The cause was that the pipeline was damaged during installation in 2003. There were no injuries, but, the costs of property damage was around $825,000.[457]

On February 10, a gas pipeline exploded and burned near Tioga, North Dakota. There were no injuries.[458]

A 30-inch diameter Columbia Gulf Transmission gas pipeline carrying natural gas exploded near Knifley, Kentucky on February 13, sending two people to the hospital with injuries, destroying two homes, and alarming residents, who saw flames from miles away. Later, it was determined that Hydrogen embrittlement had caused the pipe failure. [459][460]

On March 6, contractors working for Shell Oil Company hit Shell's Houston-to-Houma (Ho-Ho) crude oil pipeline near Port Neches, Texas, spilling 364 barrels of crude oil.[461]

On March 12, the East Harlem apartment explosion in New York City, New York. NTSB investigators found natural gas in the soil nearby, indicating that the gas leak had existed for a while before the explosion.[462]

A 20-inch Mid-Valley Pipeline Company pipeline failed in Hamilton County, Ohio on March 18, spilling at least 364 barrels of crude oil into the adjacent Oak Glen Nature Preserve. Animals in the area were affected.[463][464]

On March 18, a 3-inch, half-mile flare waste gas pipeline in a neighborhood in Arvin, California, was discovered leaking, a few blocks from Arvin High School, in a residential area. It had been leaking for as long as two years.[465]

A pipeline running to a Williams Companies LNG storage facility in Plymouth, Washington exploded and sent shrapnel flying that ruptured an LNG storage tank. Nearly 1,000 residents were evacuated and at least five employee at the facility was injured. [466][467]

A 12-inch Williams Companies gas pipeline failed at a weld in Moundsville, West Virginia. The following explosion and fire explosion scorched trees over a 2-acre area near Moundsville. Several homes were evacuated as a precaution. There were no injuries reported.[468]

On April 17, a private excavator accidentally cut a gas line while doing some work in Union Township, Licking County, Ohio on April 17. The man suffered second degree burns to the upper portion of his body. There was no damage to any buildings.[469]

On April 23, an explosion & fire hit a Williams Companies gas processing plant in Opal, Wyoming. All 95 residents of the town were evacuated, and part of US Highway 30 was closed for a time.[470][471]

On May 6, Sinclair Oil Company pipeline detected a pressure drop on a pipeline, with the problem being traced 2 days later to a leak in Knox County, Missouri. A mixture of gasoline and diesel fuel contaminated soil on a farm.[472]

3 workers from Plantation Pipeline inadvertently ruptured their pipeline at a pump station in Anderson County, South Carolina on May 12, causing a geyser of gasoline, and spraying the workers with it. There was no fire, but the workers had to be decontaminated at a hospital.[473]

On June 26, near East Bernard, Texas, a gas pipeline adjacent to a Kinder Morgan gas compressor plant blew out, destroying the roadway and catching a nearby truck on fire just south of Highway 59. Flames as high as 150 feet were shooting out of the pipeline.[474]

On July 10, a vent stack at a Williams Field Services gas pipeline compressor station in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania caught fire. Only minor damage was reported at other parts of the station.[475]

On August 12, a mulching machine hit a 12 inch natural gas pipeline in Rusk County, Texas. The operator of the machine was killed in the following explosion.[476]

About 100 gallons of crude oil spilled from a pipeline at a tank facility at the Port of Albany in Albany, New York on August 20. Workers on a routine inspection of the above-ground pipeline noticed oil spraying out of a faulty gasket and shut off valves.[477]

On August 21, four workers were injured in a fire while a crew was performing maintenance on a natural gas pipeline in Garvin County, Oklahoma. The injured workers were treated and released from a hospital, and there was no explosion.[478]

On September 14, a contract worker performing routine maintenance on a Chevron offshore gas pipeline was killed, and two other workers were injured. The accident occurred 6 miles south of Timbalier Bay off the southeast coast of Louisiana.[479]

On September 16, more than 500 residents of Benton Harbor, Michigan, were forced to leave their homes for 10 to 12 hours, after authorities discovered a leak on a 22-inch TransCanada Corporation gas transmission pipeline.[480][481]

On October 13, a gas transmission pipeline failed near Centerview, Missouri, causing an explosion and massive fire for several hours. There were no injuries.[482]

On October 13, a Sunoco/Mid-Valley crude oil pipeline ruptured, and spilled about 168,000 gallons of crude oil in Caddo Parish, Louisiana. Wildlife was killed.[483]

A 24 inch gas transmission pipeline was hit by excavators on October 23, near Newport, Arkansas. 5 nearby homes were evacuated, and 2 highways and a railroad were closed for a time. There was no fire or injuries.[484]

On October 28, an 8-inch natural gas condensate pipeline exploded in Monroe County, Ohio. A large fire followed. There were no injuries.[485]

Click to expand...

Denny Crane · Jan 8, 2015

donkiez said: ↑

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pipeline_accidents_in_the_United_States_in_the_21st_century
Click to expand...

Too fucking bad. Squirrels become roadkill, too.

donkiez · Jan 8, 2015

For anyone who is wondering this is the proposed Keystone pipeline addition.

This is the main water table that is of concern.

donkiez · Jan 8, 2015

Denny Crane said: ↑

Too fucking bad. Squirrels become roadkill, too.
Click to expand...

How many dead squirrels do you think this caused?

Denny Crane · Jan 8, 2015

jlprk said: ↑

The economics professors I've talked to in the last 12 months say you're 100% wrong. Can you link to where the Dept. of Commerce clearly disagrees with almost all economists? No offhand minor stat, please, just show me an overwhelming clear statement from the Commerce Dept. that says that the entire approach of almost 100% of economists was an entire failure. Thanks, and don't have an epic fail when you try this.
Click to expand...

So you've been talking to astrologers and believe them? Both disciplines attempt to predict the future.

https://www.aei.org/publication/that-bernstein-romer-jobs-chart-a-final-appraisal/

Denny Crane · Jan 8, 2015

donkiez said: ↑

How many dead squirrels do you think this caused?

Click to expand...

Some. Low risk, high reward. Extremely low risk, very high reward.

Suppose we shut off all the pipelines out of irrational fear. People would freeze to death, and we'd pretty much look like N Korea at night.

Cryptkeeper · Jan 8, 2015

donkiez said: ↑

The technology behind fracking has literally exploded in the recent years.
Click to expand...

Hah

donkiez · Jan 8, 2015

So back to the topic at hand. Cheap gas prices are because of Saudi Arabia trying to undermine US frackers, not because of anything it has to do with the keystone pipeline. Its kind of ironic actually because economics is more effectively doing a job that environmentalist could never accomplish. IMO this a self defeating strategy by Saudi Arabia and will only slow their demise. This will also lead to a lift on US global oil and gas bans and you will see a domestic jump like diesel had about 10 years ago as our supply becomes available to the rest of the world.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-e...-fracking-opec-oil-prices-20141216-story.html

Crude oil prices are down 40% in recent months. There's a surplus of 2 million barrels being pumped each day. Estimates are that demand for oil will fall in 2015.

And yet in the face of all this, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, is holding its oil production steady. So far, the 12 OPEC countries appear willing to absorb huge losses in the hope that plummeting prices will make U.S. shale oil extraction unprofitable. If it can squeeze out some U.S. producers, OPEC hopes to regain its dominance and force the United States back into foreign oil dependence.

lRelated
The United States has already overtaken Saudi Arabia, OPEC's dominant member, as the world's largest producer of petroleum liquids — which includes natural gas — according to the International Energy Agency. In the last three years, oil and gas production has grown faster here than in any other country in history. This energy boom has revitalized America's economy, supporting more than 2 million jobs and contributing $283 billion to U.S. gross domestic product.

OPEC's decision to send oil prices tumbling was designed to reverse these gains. As Saudi Oil Minister Ali Ibrahim Naimi said after OPEC met in November, the international cartel "provided an answer" to the U.S. shale industry.

Lower oil prices have certainly affected American shale producers.

The good news about offshore oil rigs
Fracking is more expensive than conventional oil drilling. Consequently, as oil prices fall, producers will be forced to scale back. In the Bakken formation in North Dakota, some producers need a price of at least $65 a barrel to break even. Other producers in Texas and Oklahoma have been losing money since oil dropped below $75. On Monday U.S. oil prices were $55.91, the lowest price since mid-2009.

Big energy companies are already trimming costs. ConocoPhillips recently announced plans to slash investment spending by 20% next year. Halliburton, the world's second-largest oil field services company, just announced layoffs.

But OPEC may be underestimating the tenacity of American producers.
The IEA has concluded that most shale oil from the Bakken formation is profitable at just $42 a barrel. A recent study from IHS, a consulting firm, concluded that 80% of American shale oil can be profitable between $50 and $69 per barrel. Plus, as producers continue to innovate, extraction costs will drop.
Let's not forget that OPEC is vulnerable to its own policy. Although the International Monetary Fund found that Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates can balance their budgets with oil at about $70 a barrel, the same cannot be said for the nine other members of OPEC. Venezuela and Nigeria need $120 to get by, while Iran needs $136 — more than twice Monday's price.

Indeed, once one considers rising production and decreasing demand across the globe, OPEC's move looks suicidal. Bank of America called the cartel "effectively dissolved."

Are electric cars greener? Depends on where you live
As oil prices continue to slide, the question is who will fold first: OPEC or the U.S. shale industry? That could depend on Congress.

In 1975, Congress banned the export of U.S. crude oil in response to the Arab oil embargo. With oil prices skyrocketing, Congress sought to protect America from price shocks by keeping oil at home. Today, that restriction doesn't make sense. There's no longer a shortage of oil.

The ability to export American crude oil across the world would ensure that U.S. shale producers can afford to stay in the oil game. Even if the margins are low, revenue from new international markets would allow them to keep drilling and compete for a share of the world market.

Exports wouldn't hurt American consumers. A recent analysis by the EIA found that domestic gas prices are directly tied to international crude prices. So exports would not raise prices at home.

OPEC thinks it can squash America's shale oil industry. With the right export policies, however, the United States can win this price war and solidify its place as an exporter, not just importer, in the global oil market.
Click to expand...

Denny Crane · Jan 8, 2015

What do you think they do with the excess oil they don't sell? Production exceeds consumption by 2M barrels a day, according to your article.

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