ExxonMobil to resume southern portion of Pegasus crude oil pipeline

ExxonMobil has received permission from the US pipeline safety office to resume the Pegasus crude oil pipeline’s southern portion in Mayflower, Arkansas, which ruptured in March 2013.

The Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said in a letter to Exxon that the 210-mile portion of the Pegasus pipeline will be allowed to restart at 80% of the operating pressure at the time of the failure.

The pipeline’s northern portion, which includes a portion that ruptured in a residential neighborhood in Mayflower in 2013, will remain closed.

The Mayflower oil spill occurred while the pipeline carried Canadian Wabasca heavy crude from the Athabasca oil sands. A reported 5,000 to 7,000 barrels of crude was spilled following the line rupture. It is believed that by the end of the month, around 12,000 barrels of oil mixed with water had been recovered.

Federal pipeline regulator PHMSA issued a corrective action order on 2 April 2013 that shut the pipeline until repairs had been completed and all safety concerns addressed.

The Pegasus pipeline previously carried 95,000 barrels a day a distance of 850 miles from Patoka, Illinois to Nederland, Texas. It is 20in in diameter and buried an average of 24in below ground.