California gasoline pipeline reopened
Date: 04-May-04
Country: USA
The 14.5-inch (35.5 cm) pipeline, which carries gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from San Francisco Bay area refineries to Sacramento, California, and Reno, Nevada, was shut on Tuesday after gauges showed problems with flow in the pipeline.
The site of the pipeline leak was found Wednesday morning in the Suisun Marsh on the northern edge of the greater San Francisco Bay.
Incidents like a shut pipeline, a refinery fire or malfunction, can cause refined products prices to spike on the West Coast, which is isolated from other major U.S. refining areas.
As of Friday, prices were unaffected in West Coast spot markets by the pipeline shutdown and suppliers said shortages would likely not occur if the pipeline was reopened by Monday.
Flow through the pipeline, which is buried at least three feet (0.9 meters) underground, was restored Sunday afternoon after a 50-foot (15.2 meters) section of pipe was replaced, said Kinder Morgan spokesman Jerry Engelhardt.
The U.S. Coast Guard, California Fish and Game Department and State Fire Marshal's Office are overseeing the cleanup of the marsh area and investigating the spill which Kinder Morgan estimated at less than 1,500 barrels.
"We continue to work with the state and federal agencies supervising the incident," Engelhardt said.
As many as 135 people were working on the cleaning up the diesel, which killed eight birds and six mammals. Another nine birds are being cleaned of the fuel according to a statement from the Fish and Game Department.
