Oil and gas company Nexen Energy on Friday apologized for a pipeline break that spilled about 5 million liters of a mixture of bitumen, water and sand, known as emulsion, at its Long Lake oilsands facility in northern Alberta this week.
The company, which was taken over by China’s CNOOC Ltd in 2013, said the affected area is about 16,000m2 along the pipeline’s route.
Nexen senior vice-president of Canadian operations Ron Bailey said the company is deeply concerned about the spill.
Photo: Reuters
“We sincerely apologize for the impact this had caused,” he said on Friday.
Alberta Energy Regulator spokesman Peter Murchland said the spill amounts to about 31,000 barrels, making it one of the larger pipeline failures in recent years.
Nexen said the spill was discovered on Wednesday afternoon and it has since been contained.
Bailey said that Nexen shut down the pipeline as soon as the leak was detected.
The pipeline is in a remote area accessed by helicopter and the spill has not affected any residences or people, Bailey said, adding that the line is about 100m from a lake and that the company is ensuring that the lake is protected.
The Alberta Energy Regulator and the company said it is too soon to say what might have caused the leak, adding that regulator officials are on site to assess the situation and ensure Nexen meets safety and environmental requirements during the cleanup.
The emulsion has not flowed into a body of water, but it did spill into wetlands, the regulator said.
Long Lake, about 35km southeast of Fort McMurray, uses steam to heat oilsands bitumen deep underground, enabling it to flow to the surface.
The Alberta Energy Regulator said that in March, it investigated a spill of about 2.7 million liters of condensate at Murphy Oil’s Seal oilfield in northwestern Alberta. Condensate is used to dilute heavy oil so it can flow through pipelines.
This week’s spill comes at a time when the Canadian government is pushing the Obama administration to approve TransCanada’s Keystone XL Pipeline from Canada to the US state of Texas.
The pipeline, which is designed to go from Canada through Montana and South Dakota to Nebraska, has been mired in the US regulatory process for nearly seven years. Delays in approving the pipeline have caused friction between the US and Canada.
Canada relies on the US for 97 percent of its energy exports.
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