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Plunging prices, climate concerns hit Canadian oil sands producers hard
Posted by InsideClimate: Elizabeth Douglass on August 11th, 2015
InsideClimate: Canadian oil sands producers, facing a double whammy of low oil prices and higher taxes in Alberta, are slashing spending, suspending production, cutting jobs and halting shareholder dividends. They are fighting the same market forces that are putting pressure on the entire oil industry, but face even more hurdles than the oil majors.
Oil sands projects are among the industry’s most expensive endeavors, so they need sustained, higher oil prices. When prices are low--or even very volatile--companies...
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One Year After Exxon’s Arkansas Spill, 8 Crucial Questions Still Unanswered
Posted by InsideClimate: Elizabeth Douglass on March 28th, 2014
InsideClimate: It's been a year since a broken oil pipeline sent an estimated 210,000 gallons of Canadian dilbit into an Arkansas neighborhood, but there's still a long list of unknowns about the spill. The most critical mystery yet to be resolved for the public: What caused ExxonMobil's Pegasus pipeline to break apart March 29 while the line was running well below its maximum approved pressure? All the public knows now is that a metallurgical report concluded that substandard pipe-making methods left tiny cracks...
Keeping Secrets Has Been Exxon’s Default in Ark. Oil Spill Case
Posted by InsideClimate: Elizabeth Douglass on March 28th, 2014
InsideClimate: Sometime before April 7, ExxonMobil will finally tell regulators and the public why its 1940s-era Pegasus oil pipeline split open in Mayflower, Ark. last March, spilling thick Canadian dilbit into a neighborhood and nearby cove. Will Exxon just send out a statement announcing its conclusions about the cause or causes of the Pegasus spill? Or will it also make public the details and supporting evidence behind its determination? If Exxon doesn’t provide those details, will they be made available by...
Need for Keystone XL Erodes as U.S. Oil Floods Gulf Coast Refining Hub
Posted by InsideClimate: Elizabeth Douglass on November 6th, 2013
InsideClimate: The ongoing U.S. oil boom has flooded the Gulf Coast with domestic crude to levels not seen in decades, creating a homegrown oil glut in the nation's refining center just as the Obama Administration prepares to rule on a pipeline that would add a torrent of heavy Canadian crude to the same region. It's just the latest in a string of developments that have surprised and roiled oil markets since 2009, when the combination of falling fuel demand and an unexpected surge in U.S. oil and natural gas production...
Wall Street Demands Answers From Fossil Fuel Producers on ‘Unburnable’ Carbon
Posted by InsideClimate: Elizabeth Douglass on October 24th, 2013
InsideClimate: A well-heeled coalition of investors is asking top fossil fuel companies to calculate the risks of plowing billions into new oil, gas and coal projects. They fear that carbon emission limits and slowing demand will turn them into bad investments that leave investors worse off. The requests, contained in letters sent to 45 companies [3] last month, are part of an initiative aimed at persuading oil producers and others to rein in their quest to stockpile more carbon energy. They hope to do so by tapping...
Why Is Exxon Taking Its Time Restarting Its Ruptured Dilbit Pipeline?
Posted by InsideClimate: Elizabeth Douglass on October 21st, 2013
InsideClimate: In the six months since an ExxonMobil pipeline unleashed Canadian oil in an Arkansas neighborhood, nearby residents have had much to endure—the muck and stench of heavy crude, lengthy evacuations, sickness and economic loss.
They've also been in the national spotlight, as the upheaval in tiny Mayflower, Ark., has come to symbolize the risks of aging and overlooked oil pipelines, especially when they're hundreds of mile long and carrying tar sands crude. From Illinois through Texas, many people...
Dilbit in Exxon’s Pegasus May Have Contributed Pipeline’s Rupture
Posted by InsideClimate: Elizabeth Douglass on September 9th, 2013
InsideClimate: In the five months since ExxonMobil's Pegasus oil pipeline burst in Arkansas, two things have become clear. Flawed, 1940s-era welding techniques used when the Pegasus was built set the stage for the rupture, and an internal pipeline inspection failed to spot the problem just weeks before the spill.
The most critical question of all, however, has yet to be answered: What caused the pipe's long-dormant flaws—assumed to be J-shaped 'hook cracks,' in this case—to awaken and grow undetected until catastrophe...
Exxon Knew Its Ruptured Pipeline Was Old, Defective and Brittle, and Still Added New Stresses
Posted by InsideClimate: Elizabeth Douglass on August 12th, 2013
InsideClimate: Since at least 2006, ExxonMobil [3] has known that its 1940s-era Pegasus pipeline had many manufacturing defects like the faulty welds that recently sent crude oil spewing into an Arkansas neighborhood. The company also knew that the seams of the pipe have been identified by the industry as having another dangerous flaw: They are especially brittle, and therefore more prone to cracking. "Having a crack or flaw in a pipeline is a whammy," said Patrick Pizzo [4], a professor emeritus in materials...