Shell Closes Capline Pipeline From Gulf To Midwest After Discovering Leak - Bloomberg

[hatrack]

April 12 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc said a leak forced the shutdown of a crude oil pipeline that moves more than 1 million barrels a day from the Gulf of Mexico to Midwestern refiners, cutting supplies at a time of near-record prices.

The Capline system was closed yesterday after a technician discovered a 10-gallon (37-liter) leak near Obion, Tennessee, about 190 miles (305 kilometers) west of Nashville, said Stan Mays, a Shell spokesman, in a statement. Ten gallons is less than a quarter of a barrel of oil.

``The cause of the release is under investigation,'' Mays said. ``There is no estimated time when the pipeline will be repaired and returned to service.'' Capline spans about 667 miles and can move 1.1 million barrels of oil a day from Louisiana to the pipeline hub at Patoka, Illinois, according to Shell. Capline is operated by Shell and owned by companies including Marathon Oil Co., BP Plc and Plains All American Pipeline LP.

``The key question really is how long the outage is going to be,'' said Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates LLC, a consulting company based in Houston. ``A few days isn't going to be an issue at all. If you tell me it's going to be a week, then that's going to be an issue.''

EDIT

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601072&sid=aqnLKiHHteY4&refer=energy

[liberal N proud]

1. Just ahead of the summer travel season

Amazing how these things happen at such time.

[WhiteTara]

3. what's amazing is that it doesn't happen

every day. These are old, made by the lowest bidder who used the cheapest materials and shoddiest labor.

But of course, I'm sure "they" will up the cost of gas for any reason they can find. Those several billion dollar bonus have to be paid with something!

[Diogenes2]

4. Yeah, I'm sure this half-barrel LEAK will

take ALL SUMMER to fix.

[ensho]

2. kick

nt