Nexen energy oil spill

[JD]

If the leak was there for a long time and leaked slowly, you might not miss a half a days production if it occurred over, say, 30 days? More?

It isn't necessarily a sudden, dramatic event like the discussion here seems to be trending.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Flames in 07

Maybe China fired the guy who watches the pressure gauges.

or pressure gauge was made in China.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by JD

If the leak was there for a long time and leaked slowly, you might not miss a half a days production if it occurred over, say, 30 days? More?

It isn't necessarily a sudden, dramatic event like the discussion here seems to be trending.

From the info available its an above ground line with road access that operators drive along everyday. So it would be very unlikely for a spill of this size to go unnoticed for days or weeks. 5000 m^3 is a lot plus the water in the bitumen should flash as it goes to atmospheric pressure so you'd get a steam plume in addition to the oil spill.

[Peanut]

Originally Posted by GGG

From the info available its an above ground line with road access that operators drive along everyday. So it would be very unlikely for a spill of this size to go unnoticed for days or weeks. 5000 m^3 is a lot plus the water in the bitumen should flash as it goes to atmospheric pressure so you'd get a steam plume in addition to the oil spill.

I haven't seen info anywhere that confirms it's an above ground line, let alone confirming road access beside it. The regulator press release said pipeline. They license the lines so you'd think they get it right.

[burn_this_city]

Originally Posted by Peanut

I haven't seen info anywhere that confirms it's an above ground line, let alone confirming road access beside it. The regulator press release said pipeline. They license the lines so you'd think they get it right.

All the gathering system pipelines that run from the pads to the CPF are above ground. It's unfeasible to bury them.

[llwhiteoutll]

Originally Posted by Peanut

I haven't seen info anywhere that confirms it's an above ground line, let alone confirming road access beside it. The regulator press release said pipeline. They license the lines so you'd think they get it right.

It is a pipeline, but one that runs above ground. Gathering lines all have access for maintenance and monitoring.

[Coach]

Saudi's want to flood the market with supply? We'll just dump all our supply and the cost will be driven up!

That works, right?

[Bobblehead]

Looking at the pictures being posted of the area, it does look like an underground pipeline.

[Boblobla]

I know Nexen has a pipeline running between Kinosis and Long Lake. Since the spill was on muskeg I am wondering if that is what leaked.

[Reaper]

The pipeline that leaked is called a "feeder" and runs from a wellhead to the processing plant.

It's probably from a SAGD well. Oil Sands plus hot steam equals emulsion.

[Boblobla]

Looking at the pictures in this article, that is what appears to have ruptured.

http://globalnews.ca/news/2116785/ne...ipeline-spill/

Seems to be the underground line between the two sites.

[BlackArcher101]

Double walled pipeline about a year old with new detection tech and both fail?

Yikes.

[FLAMESRULE]

Yikes, this looks like a complete F up by the engineers + operations group there. Sure leak detection may have failed, what about physical gauges, what about material balance and production accounting, daily run sheets + visual reports. Not to mention interstitial leak detection is mandatory is it not?? I struggle to see how that happened over night.

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by FLAMESRULE

what about physical gauges

Without knowing the exact setup I can't really comment on how easy it should have been to catch (although that volume should have been easy to spot).

However in some of the new SAGD facilities, physical gauges are almost non-existent, because transmitters never fail!

[FLAMESRULE]

Originally Posted by kunkstyle

Without knowing the exact setup I can't really comment on how easy it should have been to catch (although that volume should have been easy to spot).

However in some of the new SAGD facilities, physical gauges are almost non-existent, because transmitters never fail!

Oh man...I worked a jr. heavy oil company with thermal aspirations (I wasn't involved, I do cEOR). But if they didn't have physical gauges (or backup transmitters, etc.) on a 20" line operating at 100c + 1000kPa...then wow. What about simple material balance...or hey, how come our WH pressure is down so much today??

Not to mention a CONTRACTOR found the spill. I hope people lose jobs over this. A "fairly new line" and they have no idea how long its been leaking. Idiots.

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by FLAMESRULE

Not to mention a CONTRACTOR found the spill.

Devil's advocate from a biased point of view, but given where it was I'd say it was much more likely that a contractor be in that physical area. Plant/pads ops have little interaction with gathering lines/headers. A contractor (heat trace, insulator, what have you) would be more likely to find something like that.

Although I have no idea how the control room wouldn't have caught that.

[InglewoodFan]

Originally Posted by BlackArcher101

Double walled pipeline about a year old with new detection tech and both fail?

Yikes.

Not sure if it'll ever be known in this case, but I know there are pipe mills that some operators will buy from that others won't touch. Could have been a defect from the mill on such a new line.

[para transit fellow]

This is originally supposed to be from globals twitter feed but I can't find the original

https://twitter.com/bafroe/status/62...224832/photo/1

It's a big puddle!

[Looch City]

^ The body of water to the left of it is a pond/lake btw, not the spill if that's what you're thinking.

[Clarkey]

It would have been identified that the pipe yielded right away but you still have a full valve section of oil remaining in the pipe that has to go somewhere after the section is isolated.