Quote:
Originally Posted by EonBlue
The train that exploded in Lac Megantic was carrying oil from the Bakken Formation in North Dakota. The oil from that location is sweet crude.
|
Why was Lac-Mégantic crude oil so flammable?: Authorities want closer look at cargo from train disaster
Quote:
Some shale oil has been found to contain hydrogen sulphide vapour ? a flammable, corrosive, and highly explosive compound. Bakken crude is known to hold considerable amounts of flammable hydrogen sulphide gas.
The Lac-Megantic crash came just a couple of months after pipeline company Enbridge Inc. presented documents to the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission stating that it refused to carry Bakken oil with extremely high levels of hydrogen sulphide in its lines.
The company explained to the commission that the sulphide posed a serious risk to the health and safety of workers that came into close contact with the substance.
In Canada, federal government regulation and safety standards do not distinguish between different types of crude oil, Keith Stewart of Greenpeace said in a recent interview.
He added that they are all labelled as Class 3 flammable liquids for transportation purposes, even though the chemical make-up could make one type more explosive than another. Stewart said the regulatory failure to distinguish between different types of crude could cost lives in the future.
|
So now Enbridge wants to pump Bakken shale oil in the sandpiper line parallel to the Canadian tarsands Alberta Clipper line 67?
The point is the new sources of oil are more expensive to produce, produce more CO2, are unknown quantities in transport that appear more dangerous, and they are not going to be admitted into the U.S. via the final Keystone XL leg.
Canadian rail car transport of oil is not welcome to pass through MN, and neither will be the pipelines. There is no need for MN to accept the risk. I don't think Enbridge is going to get its Certificate of Need from the MN PUC, and it's going to be under scrutiny for its "fuck you, regulators and U.S. State Department" approach of just doing it, like Nike.
Trading and grading oil is not my business, so I make mistakes, but it is getting interesting:
High Noon on the Gulf Coast: Canada, Saudi oil set for showdown