Minnesota Pipeline Fire Causes Spike in Price of Oil
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CLEARBROOK, Minn. — A fire at a pipeline from Canada that feeds oil to America killed two people and sent oil prices soaring before burning out yesterday morning, officials said.
Two workers fixing the underground pipeline were killed when fumes apparently escaped and ignited the blaze in Clearbrook, about 215 miles northwest of Minneapolis, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Kristine Chapin, said.
The fire along the Enbridge Energy pipeline in northern Minnesota was reported shortly before 4 p.m. Wednesday, the Sheriff’s Department said. The fire was out by yesterday morning.
“It looks like it’s out now. They’re just mopping up and making sure,” a terminal supervisor at the pipeline, Blake Olson, said.
The 34-inch pipeline carries crude oil from Saskatchewan to the Chicago area, Ms. Chapin said. The pipe had leaked a few weeks ago and was being repaired, she said.
“It appears as though one of those fittings may have failed and caused fumes to leak, and it caught fire,” Ms. Chapin said. She said there wasn’t an explosion and described it as a “big fire.” Nearby residents were evacuated because of the thick black smoke in the sparsely populated area.
The crude oil is used to make several kinds of fuel, such as gasoline and heating oil for homes. An average of 1.5 million barrels of oil passes through the pipeline each day, another Enbridge spokesman, Larry Springer, said.
The pipeline that leaked and three others were shut down, Enbridge said. Two of the lines were re-started Thursday morning, Mr. Springer said. Another line will be inspected to see if it is safe to come back online, but the line with the leak will likely be out for some time, Mr. Springer said.
Light, sweet crude for January delivery jumped $3.78 to $94.40 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by late afternoon in Singapore. It climbed as much as $4.55 to $95.17 in the electronic session before slipping back.