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Showing posts with label pipelines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pipelines. Show all posts
Monday, October 21, 2013
Alberta at a Crossroads: Debt, Pipelines and Floods - Oct 22, 2013
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Monday, August 26, 2013
Ewart: What took pipeline safety report so long?
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| Stephen Ewart is the Calgary Herald's Energy and Economics editor and columnist. Photograph by: Gavin Young, Calgary Herald |
Ewart: What took pipeline safety report so long?
By Stephen Ewart, Calgary Herald columnist August 24, 2013
"One of the priorities is to define what constitutes a body of water - seriously.
They've been regulating oil and gas development in Alberta for 75 years, there is 400,000 kilometres of pipelines in the province that cross under tens of thousands of water courses that swell each spring with snow melt and rain and yet they can't define one of the industry's "high-risk, high-consequence" geographical challenges. It would seem to confirm there are still a lot of unknowns about pipeline safety."
Read entire article here: http://bit.ly/14zquMg
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Pipeline review finds river rules lacking.
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| Crews prepare a boom on the Gleniffer Reservoir to contain oil from a Plains Midstream pipeline leak in June 2012. Photograph by: Jeff McIntosh, THE CANADIAN PRESS |
Pipeline review finds river rules lacking.
Update: Critics pan review that finds Alberta pipeline rules lacking
Inconsistency an issue as lines cross water bodies, says safety report
By Dan Healing, Calgary Herald August 23, 2013
Pipeline safety regulations in Alberta are among the best in Canada but are inadequate when oil-bearing lines approach rivers and creeks, according to a long-awaited review of pipeline safety unveiled Friday.
Read story here: http://bit.ly/1420pSe
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Canadian Energy Strategy – Opinions from Alberta
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| Photo, courtesy Colleen De Neve |
Roach: Even an imperfect energy strategy is
worth pursuing
By Robert Roach, Calgary Herald September
26, 2012
With the exception of B.C.’s Christy Clark,
Canada’s premiers recently agreed to create a new Canadian energy strategy. But
what exactly is the purpose of a Canadian energy strategy?
The answer is, or at least it should be,
simple: to maximize the benefits of Canada’s energy resources. A new and
improved strategy is a critical step toward realizing the ambition of becoming,
to borrow a phrase from Prime Minister Stephen Harper, an energy superpower.
This means selling as much of our energy as
we can at the highest possible price while maintaining an efficient and
reliable domestic energy system to meet the demands of Canadian industry and
consumers.
Read more here
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| Photo, courtesy Sheldon Shumir Fou |
Keeping: Albertans shouldn’t fear a greener
economy
By Janet Keeping, Calgary Herald October 9,
2012
Re: “Even an imperfect energy strategy is
worth pursuing,” Robert Roach, Opinion, Sept. 27.
Robert Roach’s piece raises many more
questions than it answers and, sadly, shows us once again that the politics of
fear and disrespect are alive in what passes for public debate on energy policy
in Alberta.
Roach tells us that the purpose of a
Canadian energy strategy should be “simple” — “to maximize the benefits of
Canada’s energy resources.” But of course it is far from simple to say
precisely what those benefits are.
To tell us, as Roach does, that a “new and
improved strategy (it’s news to me that we had one to improve upon) is a critical
step toward realizing the ambition of becoming ... an energy superpower,”
doesn’t help at all. What in the world does the phrase “energy superpower”
mean? It’s empty sloganeering meant to impress, not to inform.
According to Roach, Canada has to sell its
energy “at the highest possible price,” which sounds reasonable enough. Who
doesn’t think we should seek a good price? — until you ask, but what does
“possible” mean? What are the constraints on our pursuit of the highest price?
Roach says “while maintaining an efficient and reliable domestic energy
system.”
Read more here
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Pipelines & River Crossings (Alberta)
Pipelines to be reviewed
Calgary company to check into safety measures
Calgary Herald
The Canadian Press
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Alberta's energy industry regulator has hired a Calgary company to review the province's pipeline network.
The Energy Resources Conservation Board said Monday that Group 10 Engineering will conduct the government-ordered review of pipeline safety, spill management and the security of pipelines that cross water.
The review was announced earlier in the summer following three pipeline-related oil spills in the province.
The board says the review should be completed by the end of November and Energy Minister Ken Hughes should have a report year's end.
Greenpeace Canada spokesman Mike Hudema says it's disappointing that none of the groups that asked for the review in the first place was consulted before Group 10 was hired.
"In launching this review, Minister Hughes acknowledged that it was only happening because of public pressure," Hudema said Monday in a news release.
Monday, June 18, 2012
Red Deer River Oil Spill: Living With Pipelines Part 3 of 3
Children playing in Red Deer River. Photo, Courtesy CanEnviroRock
Pipeline leak near Sundre takes toll on Gateway project
Opponents point to spill, warn of risks
By James Wood And Chris Varcoe,
Calgary Herald
June 17, 2012
An oil spill in central Alberta flowed into the Red Deer River system, but its ultimate effect may be felt thousands of kilometres away, over the Rocky Mountains.
Just over a week ago, a section of pipeline running under a tributary of the river near Sundre leaked up to 475,000 litres of oil, with much of it flushed into nearby Gleniffer Lake.
Today, the spill threatens to give Premier Alison Redford a major political headache as she touts pipeline expansion across the continent and a Canadian energy strategy aimed at boosting Alberta oil and gas exports.
With British Columbia in the midst of ongoing federal hearings - and a ferocious debate - over Enbridge's proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, the Alberta oil slick has provided a vivid image to fears of the project.
In Burns Lake, B.C., a community of more than 3,500 people along the proposed pipeline route, a tie vote of the village council last week meant the narrow defeat of a motion opposing the pipeline.
Mayor Luke Strimbold wants the village to stay officially neutral on Gateway until the end of a joint regulatory review process.
The Sundre leak won't be a deciding factor, he said, but is firmly on the community's radar.
"It's definitely something we are aware of and we take into consideration," Strimbold said.
"It's definitely a concern. (Gateway) would go right underneath, in-between the channel of Burns Lake and Decker Lake . . . where we collect our drinking water and that was one of the concerns of the residents."
For opponents of Gateway, such as Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the B.C. Union of Indian Chiefs, the spill has galvanized their concerns and public opinion.
"I don't think there's any question people quickly linked the spill in Alberta to the inherent risks of building
a pipeline across 1,100 kilometres of territory that has many, many significant rivers, streams and watersheds that are integral to the wild salmon fishery here in British Columbia," he said.
"It doesn't bode well . . . to convince people this is a riskfree project that we need not worry about."
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Red Deer River Oil Spill: Living With Pipelines Part 2 of 3
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| A boom stretches out to contain a pipeline leak on the Gleniffer reservoir, which provides drinking water for the city of Red Deer. Photograph by: Jeff McIntosh, Canadian Press , Calgary Herald |
Calls growing for probe of aging pipeline system
Recent spills highlight ongoing risk
By Stephen Ewart,
Calgary Herald
June 16, 2012
Amid the chaos on the conference floor of this week's Global Petroleum Show, Ron Laidman of Shawcor was touting his company's latest polymer technology to modernize pipelines in the field.
Pipelines were a big topic of conversation throughout the show because, at the same time, hundreds of workers were busy cleaning up after a rupture in a 46-year-old pipeline dumped up to 3,000 barrels of crude oil into the Red Deer River system.
The river is the source of drinking water for 90,000 people in central Alberta farm country.
In northern Alberta, workers are also mopping up at Rainbow Lake after a pipeline leak by Pace Oil & Gas spilled 5,000 barrels. It's the same area where Plains Midstream had released 28,000 barrels last year in one of Alberta's biggest spills.
It was a Plains pipeline that ruptured June 7 southwest of Red Deer.
"Unfortunately, it can take things like a failure to actually cause a change," said Laidman, who was promoting Shawcor's corrosion-prevention coatings, which address integrity concerns of aging pipelines.
Two spills in as many months increased talk about the safety and reliability of the 400,000 kilometres of pipelines that criss-cross Alberta.
The issue is politically sensitive with the proposed Keystone XL and Northern Gateway pipelines from Alberta's oilsands now attracting significant attention from environmental groups. Within hours of the latest spill, Alberta Premier Alison Redford was on site, pronouncing it an un-fortunate but rare event.
With the Energy Resources Conservation Board listing 531 oil or gas spills in 2010 in Alberta, environmentalists questioned the comment that spills "don't happen very often."
There are growing calls for an independent probe of the network that will be relied upon to carry Alberta's fast-growing volumes of crude from the oilsands.
"I really don't trust the companies to be accurate in what they are reporting and (I) think we need an independent re-view," said Mike Hudema of Greenpeace.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Regulator issues call to action in wake of oil spill near Sundre
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| Red Deer River oil spill. Photo, Edmonton Journal, Canadian Press |
Pipeline operators told to increase monitoring around water crossings in wake of Sundre spill
Regulator issues call to action in wake of oil spill near Sundre
By Dina O'Meara,
Calgary Herald
June 13, 2012
Provincial regulators are urging pipeline operators in Alberta to increase monitoring around water crossings almost a week after thousands of barrels of sour oil spilled into the swollen Red Deer River.
The Energy Resources Conservation Board called on companies Tuesday to raise their vigilance even as heavy rains and melting snows flooded into waterways, raising a potential threat to some pipelines.
"High stream flows and flooding have the potential to rapidly scour and wash out pipeline crossings of creeks, streams, and rivers," the board said.
But the difficult conditions could make monitoring difficult.
"In such cases, licensees are encouraged to isolate and purge pipelines where they may be at risk," the bulletin said.
The call to action comes five days after landowners near Sundre, about 130 kilometres northwest of Calgary, alerted companies of the stink of oil near Jackson Creek. Up to 3,000 barrels of crude leaked into the river, moving on the fast-flowing river through prime wildlife and fish habitat before being contained at Gleniffer reservoir.
The bulletin was issued as a result of the Plains Midstream spill, said a board spokesman, Bob Curran.
Curran said the board has issued similar alerts in previous times of high water flow in the province such as during the floods of 2009.
Pipeline operator Plains Midstream Canada subsequently said the spill, which was contained 50 km downstream at Gleniffer Reservoir, would have been far worse if the company had been flowing crude through the line at the time.
"This is worse than the barn door syndrome," said Joe Anglin, energy critic and Wildrose MLA for RimbeyRocky Mountain House-Sundre.
The regulator should be using its muscle to enforce action to prevent spills rather than "encourage" companies to follow already established safety protocol, Anglin said.
"They're begging industry to do what they are supposed to be doing and the ERCB is not showing any leadership whatsoever. What they should be doing is . . . giving companies directives to inspect water crossings and report back."
Note: All bolding is ours
Sunday, June 10, 2012
'My place is destroyed': Albertan in wake of Red Deer River oil spill
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| Gord Johnston surveys the oil-soaked banks of the Red Deer River in Alberta following an oil leak, June 8, 2012. (Nathan VanderKlippe/The Globe and Mail) |
Cleanup of latest Alberta oil spill could take all summer
Nathan VanderKlippe and Dawn Walton
Sundre, Alberta and Calgary
The Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Jun. 08 2012,
Gord Johnston’s tranquil life along the Red Deer River in central Alberta was shattered Thursday night as the nauseating scent of crude oil hung in the air and a coffee-coloured liquid lapped the banks near his home.
He reported the oil leak and, within two hours, a helicopter dispatched by a local oil company landed on his 57-acre property near Sundre, Alta., to fly him over the devastating scene. Mr. Johnston, who works in the oil patch, could see oil “boiling up” in the river at the site of a pipeline crossing. By Friday morning, the situation had worsened. Oil clotted one of the province’s most crucial waterways and soaked nearby wetlands. He found a dead fish coated with oil and brought a tar-covered baby beaver to a wildlife refuge.
“My place is destroyed,” Mr. Johnston said, as he prepared to abandon his home and later head for a hospital to be treated for exposure to the fumes. “My whole life’s work is gone. I’ve pretty well lost it all here.”
Plains Midstream Canada, which operates the pipeline that was built in 1966, shut a 10-kilometre section of its Rangeland South line. While the company is still investigating the cause and precise location of the spill, it estimated that 1,000 to 3,000 barrels of crude, or 160,000 to 480,000 litres, has leaked. About 90 workers were erecting booms in Lake Gleniffer, some 40 kilometres downstream, in an bid to prevent an oil slick from reaching Red Deer, Alberta’s third-largest city, which draws its water from the river.
But cleanup and containment won’t be easy and could take all summer, officials said.
The already engorged river could flood again as another storm system is in the weekend forecast. It may be equally difficult to undo the damage to Alberta’s energy industry, which has recently suffered a number of high-profile spills. But unlike previous incidents, this spill isn’t in a remote location and it comes as the continent is in the midst of heated debates over construction of the Keystone XL and Northern Gateway pipelines.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Pipelines and Streamlined Environmental Reviews
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| Heiltsuk First Nation elders lead a rally, March 26th, against the Enbridge Pipeline through downtown Vancouver to the Art Gallery. Ward Perrin / Postmedia News |
In another pipeline related story last week, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said environmental reviews of energy and mining projects will be streamlined. He certainly had the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline in mind. However, a former Enbridge executive warms that this many result in some unintended consequences.
New rules may hinder Enbridge pipeline, ex-official says
Jeffrey Jones,
Reuters
Financial Post
Apr 19, 2012
CALGARY – A government move to limit regulatory review of Enbridge Inc‘s Northern Gateway oil pipeline to Canada’s West Coast will only add to the company’s own missteps in dealing with aboriginal communities on the pipeline route and may raise more legal obstacles, a former Northern Gateway executive says.
Roger Harris, who was vice-president of aboriginal and community partnerships for Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines in 2008 and 2009, said the company has been inconsistent in its strategy as it tries to win over British Columbia native groups whose land the pipeline would cross. He said that has helped fuel some of the fierce opposition to the $5.5-billion project that has arisen.
Harris also said the company missed early opportunities to build business relationships in some communities, including investing in independent power projects they had planned.
Many native groups, often called first nations, say they fear that construction and operation of the pipeline will threaten traditional ways of life and leave their territories and coastal waters at risk of oil spills. Some have said court actions are a certainty if it is approved.
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