Decades-old defect caused Exxon's Arkansas oil spill: regulator
Source: Reuters
Decades-old defect caused Exxon's Arkansas oil spill: regulator
WASHINGTON | Thu Aug 1, 2013 2:42pm EDT
(Reuters) - A leak in Exxon Mobil Corp's nearly 70-year-old Pegasus pipeline, which spilled thousands of barrels of crude oil in a small Arkansas town in March, appears to have been caused by an original manufacturing defect, U.S. regulators said on Thursday.
The 95,000-barrel-per-day pipeline, which has been shut since March after spilling about 5,000 barrels of Canadian crude in Mayflower, Arkansas, will remain shut until it can be restarted safely, a spokesman for the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said.
The initial review of the ruptured pipeline, prepared by Hurst Metallurgical Research Laboratory, found the pipeline failure "resulted from an original manufacturing defect of the electronic resistance welded pipe," the spokesman said.
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When asked whether Exxon Mobil was responsible for the defect, company spokesman Aaron Stryk said the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, from Ohio, was the original maker and was no longer in business.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/01/us-usa-pipeline-exxon-idUSBRE97012S20130801
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