Climate + Energy Project

JIM LYNCH
The Detroit News

Pipelines in Michigan and other Midwest states are being put at greater risk by rising Canadian production of corrosive tar sand oil, according to a new study by several environmental groups.

Tar sand oil — or, as it’s known in the industry, diluted bitumen — is mined from a massive clay, sand, water and bitumen deposit in Alberta, Canada. Once usable product is separated from the mined mixture, the diluted bitumen is pumped through pipelines to a variety of destinations.

One of those destinations is Sarnia, Ontario. And the diluted bitumen makes its way there via an underground oil line operated by Enbridge Energy Co. that runs across southern Michigan. That line ruptured in late July near Marshall, causing 843,000 gallons of oil to spill and eventually reach the Kalamazoo River.

The trouble with diluted bitumen is that it is “highly corrosive, acidic and potentially unstable” and more damaging to pipelines than regular crude oil, according to conservation groups.

The Natural Resources Defense Council, National Wildlife Federation, Pipeline Safety Trust and the Sierra Club on Wednesday released a study urging heightened monitoring of the pipelines due to increased transportation of diluted bitumen.

Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, the NRDC’s international program director, offered this description of the impact of diluted bitumen on pipelines: “It’s a bit like sand-blasting the inside of a pipe.”

The report said lines carrying product derived from tar sands are 16 times more likely to leak than lines carrying ordinary crude.

The Energy Resources Conservation Board of Alberta, which regulates energy production, disputed the report Wednesday in a press release.

“Analysis of pipeline failure statistics in Alberta has not identified any significant differences in failure frequency between pipelines handling conventional crude versus pipelines carrying crude bitumen, crude oil or synthetic crude oil,” the board said.

Pipelines in the United States have been getting increased scrutiny, recently following several high profile spills. Besides the Enbridge leak, there have been several smaller spills recently: In September last year, a section of Enbridge’s Lakehead system spilled 256,000 gallons of oil near Chicago.

In late May, more than 210,000 gallons of oil leaked from a pipeline in Alaska.

And on Jan. 9, 2010, 126,000 gallons leaked from an Enbridge pipeline in North Dakota.

The major spill near Marshall last July contained tar sand oil. But Enbridge contends the diluted bitumen is no more dangerous than other petroleum products.

In a written reply to questions, Enbridge said: “Crude oil from Canadian oil sands is no different from oil transported by other crude oil pipelines … Pipeline operators don’t build multibillion dollar assets to then destroy them with a corrosive product.”

Canadian pipelines are bound to carry more of it in the future, some reports say. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers has said the country has 175 billion barrels of recoverable oil. That puts Canada behind only Saudi Arabia in reserves.

In 2010, Canadian output of oil from tar sands was 1.5 million barrels a day. According to CAPP projections, that rate will roughly double in 10 years and reach 3.5 million barrels a day by 2025.

That production would be helped along by the proposed Keystone XL project — a $12 billion, 1,661-mile pipeline that would transfer tar sand oils from Alberta through the midwestern United States to Texas.

Conservationists want a moratorium on such projects until more research is done on how diluted bitumen affects pipelines.

“As Canada delivers a greater and greater percentage of our oil, their corrosive products will take a greater and greater toll on our pipelines — and that creates a huge safety risk we are not prepared for yet,” the NRDC’s Casey-Lefkowitz said.

The conservation groups have urged steps to address the impact of having more diluted bitumen flow through U.S. pipelines. They include reviewing pipeline safety regulations; requiring the industry to improve safety and detection capabilities, and shelving new diluted bitumen pipeline construction.

Posted by Kate Gonzalez www.climateandenergy.org/