On the afternoon of March 29, ExxonMobil’s 848-mile, 20-inch Pegasus pipeline that transports up to 90,000 barrels (bbl.) of crude oil per day from Patoka, Illinois, to the Gulf Coast experienced a leak and caused the evacuation of 22 homes in the town of Mayflower, Arkansas. Officials stated that emergency response workers reached the site of the incident within 30 minutes of its detection and have recovered an estimated combined 12,000 bbls. of oil and water as of April 1. The pipeline has been shutdown and no timetable has been given for when it will be brought back online.

According to ExxonMobil officials, the company is working to determine the cause of the incident and has a clean-up plan in place for the North Woods subdivision that was impacted. The company, along with representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency, Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, Arkansas Department of Health, Faulkner County have set up a Unified Command that is overseeing these clean-up efforts.

Thus far, the company deployed 120 workers, 15 vacuum trucks and 33 storage tanks to the site as part of this clean-up. Lake Conway, located nearby, was not impacted and the company has placed a containment system into service to ensure that volumes do not reach the lake. ExxonMobil reported that thus far it has received 54 claims through the claim line it set up for residents.

“We regret that this incident has occurred and apologize for any disruption and inconvenience that it has caused,” said Karen Tyrone, southern operations manager of ExxonMobil Pipeline Co. “Our focus is on protecting health, safety and the environment. We will be here until the cleanup is complete.”

"An influx of tar sands on the U.S. pipeline network poses greater risks to pipeline integrity, challenges for leak detection systems and significantly increased impacts to sensitive water resources," the Natural Resources Defense Council said in a press release.

Both the Pegasus and Keystone XL pipelines will transport heavy Canadian crude to the Gulf Coast, but it’s important to note that there are major differences between the Pegasus pipeline and TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL with the largest being that the Pegasus pipeline was originally built in the 1940s and was expanded to transport an additional 30,000 bbl. per day and upgraded with new leak detection systems in 2009.

The Keystone will be the most state-of-the-art pipeline when it is brought online. Another major difference is that the Pegasus pipeline extends through residential areas while the Keystone XL will primarily transport volumes through rural areas. Considering that environmental groups and other opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline still compare the potential ramifications of the project to a vastly different piece of infrastructure: BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig in the deepwater of the Gulf of Mexico that experienced a blowout in July 2010, it’s safe to say that these opponents won’t take the time to notice the differences between the pipelines and instead focus on the similarities in order to further derail the Keystone XL and future pipeline projects.

Clearly there is a need for strong safety measures and emergency response plans for all oil and natural gas infrastructure, including pipelines, but it appears that ExxonMobil’s response to this incident was fast and has been very quick and effective – thus far the only reported casualties have been two ducks with no human lives harmed.

Thus far the State Department seems to be taking a more measured approach to the Keystone XL project than many of its opponents by not actively comparing this incident with another completely different project. “Safety is of paramount concern in the way we look at these applications and our national interest determination. It’s an essential consideration that we take into account, and we consult extensively, including with all of the expert agencies, so it’s one of the things that goes into our overall look at the Keystone [XL] pipeline,” Victoria Nuland, spokesperson for the State Department, said at a press briefing on April 1.

In addition, White House spokesperson Jay Carney was also careful to not equate the two when he was asked during a press briefing on April 1 about the oil spill and its possible ramifications on the Keystone XL pipeline. “We take the safety of our many pipelines in this country very seriously and we have an agency that is dedicated to the task of making sure that those pipelines operate safely and in cases like these that investigations are undertaken and steps taken to both mitigate the damage and hopefully avoid them in the future.” Carney added that the Pegasus oil spill has not influenced President Obama’s ultimate decision on the Keystone XL one way or the other.

Contact the author, Frank Nieto, at fnieto@hartenergy.com

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