From the Calagary Herald – May 6, 2011

by Dina O’Meara

CALGARY — An oil leak in a remote area of the
Northwest Territories could reach up to 1,500 barrels — substantially
more than the four barrels originally reported by pipeline operator
Enbridge Inc.

The Calgary-based pipeline
operator said Monday its original estimate was based on oil found on
land at the leak site, located about 50 kilometres south of Wrigley,
NWT, and didn’t take into account seeping into the soil.

“Based
on current estimates provided by the third party experts on site,
Enbridge anticipates the release volume could range from a minimum of
700 barrels to a maximum of 1,500 barrels,” said spokeswoman Gina
Jordan, in an e-mail late Monday. “Based on its current analysis,
Enbridge anticipates the probability that the maximum volume would be
exceeded to be low.”

The company has removed about 100 barrels of oil from the site, she said.

Enbridge
last year faced an environmental and public relations nightmare after
its Line 6b ruptured in late July, spewing almost 20,000 barrels of oil
into Michigan waterways.

Jordan said the NWT leak was contained along the pipeline right of way and no watercourses were threatened.

The
Norman Wells to Zama, Alberta line was restarted May 20th, but is not
at full operations due an outage on the Zama to Hardisty, AB Rainbow
line, operated by Plains Midstream Canada.

Rainbow
was shut down in late April after a leak was detected on the system
near the community of Little Buffalo in northwest Alberta. The 28,000
barrel spill was the largest in Alberta for decades.

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