Chevron: Offshore rig near Nigeria's oil-rich delta catches fire; search for workers ongoing
By Yinka Ibukun, The Associated Press, Canadian Business, January 16, 2012
LAGOS, Nigeria - An offshore rig exploring possible deep-water oil and gas fields off Nigeria's coast for Chevron Corp. caught fire Monday, and the oil company said officials were still trying to account for all those working there.
Vandals spill 30,000 litres of oil, water
By Matt Dykstra, Edmonton Sun, October 11, 2011
Fairview RCMP are looking for some mischief-makers who mucked about with some oil pipeline valves last week, spilling 30,000 litres of oil and water.
A year of Canadian oil pipeline ruptures
Reuters, May 10, 2011
TransCanada Corp TRP.TO said it expects to restart its Keystone oil line this weekend following a spill, the latest in a series of pipeline incidents that have raised questions about the industry's safety.
Here is a list of ruptures over the past year on pipelines that carry Canadian crude.
2011
4.5 million litres of crude oil spill from northern Alberta pipeline
By Hanneke Brooymans, Edmonton Journal, May 4, 2011
EDMONTON — About 100 people are cleaning up 4.5 million litres of oil, the biggest crude oil pipeline spill in Alberta since 1975.
Worker killed in Alberta sour gas leak
Nathan VanderKlippe, Globe and Mail, May. 01, 2011
Deadly sour gas has killed the second worker in three years near the small Alberta community of Fox Creek.
RCMP were called Saturday evening after the gas, which contains hydrogen sulfide, leaked while three people were doing maintenance on a natural gas line. Two of the workers were exposed; a third was farther away.
Uranium ship likely coming to Vancouver for spill cleanup
By Cassandra Kyle, Postmedia News, January 20, 2011
SASKATOON — A ship whose cargo of uranium concentrate spilled during bad weather at sea last month will likely be moved to the Port of Vancouver for cleanup, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission says.
Leak at Pump Station 1 shuts down pipeline
By CASEY GROVE, Alaska Daily News, January 8th, 2011
The 800-mile trans-Alaska oil pipeline remained shut down late Saturday after crews discovered a leak at Pump Station 1 on the North Slope earlier in the morning.
Oil company reports pipeline explosion in Alberta
Postmedia News, Calgary Herald, January 2, 2011
CALGARY — A fire was sparked after an explosion this weekend at a gas pipeline in the area of Swan Hills, Alta., about 220 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, an oil and gas company has reported.
Disabled cargo ship reaches Dutch Harbor
Anchorage Daily News, December 7th, 2010
A cargo ship disabled in the Bering Sea has reached Alaska's Dutch Harbor.
Fuel tanker runs aground in Northwest Passage
Globe and Mail, Sep. 02, 2010
A fuel tanker loaded with 9 million litres of diesel fuel has run aground in the Northwest Passage, Canadian coast guard officials confirmed Thursday.
The Canadian-registered vessel, named 'Nanny,' hit a sandbar Wednesday in the area near Simpson Strait, Nunavut. It was carrying supplies to Northern communities.
Production rig in Gulf of Mexico explodes; Coast Guard rescuing workers
David Hammer, The Times-Picayune, September 02, 2010
A shallow-water production rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded this morning, causing the thirteen crew members aboard to abandon the structure.
Enbridge denies allegations of coercion
Shawn McCarthy, Globe and Mail, Sep. 01, 2010
House committee members say company asked Michigan residents near spill site to sign waivers against further liability
What laws would apply if there was a BP-type spill along the B.C. coast?
Graham Walker And Dionysios Rossi, Vancouver Sun, August 3, 2010
Perhaps no single story has dominated news coverage recently like the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It has raised questions about the legal status of offshore oil and gas development and tanker traffic along the west coast of British Columbia.
Oil Rig’s Siren Was Kept Silent, Technician Says
By ROBBIE BROWN, New York Times, July 23, 2010
KENNER, La. — The emergency alarm on the Deepwater Horizon was not fully activated the day the oil rig caught fire and exploded, killing 11 people and setting off the massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a rig worker on Friday told a government panel investigating the accident.The worker, Mike Williams, the rig’s chief electronics technician, said the general safety alarm was habitually set to “inhibited” to avoid waking up the crew with late-night sirens and emergency lights.
Oil seeping from Gulf floor near well, but Coast Guard allows cap to stay in place another 24 hours
Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune, July 18, 2010
Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen on Sunday evening agreed to allow a cap to continue to block the flow of oil from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead, despite the discovery of oil or natural gas seeping from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico at a location away from the well.
Technology’s disasters share long trail of hubris
The Associated Press, Las Vegas Sun, July 18, 2010
It's all so familiar. A technological disaster, then a presidential commission examining what went wrong. And ultimately a discovery that while technology marches on, concern for safety lags. Technology isn't as foolproof as it seemed.
Devon Energy shuts down oil sands wells after bitumen-laced steam leak
Nathan VanderKlippe, Globe and Mail Update, Jul. 12, 2010
Failure at one of the company’s wellheads sent a plume of high-temperature steam into the air for nearly 36 hours last weekend
Explosion closes Teck coal mine in B.C.
By CBC News, June 29, 2010
Vancouver-based Teck Resources said Tuesday an explosion in a coal dryer at its Greenhills coal mine near Elkford, B.C., will "certainly" impact coal production there, but it's too early to tell how long a shutdown will last.
More than 20 blowouts have occurred at Barnett Shale wells
By JACK Z. SMITH, Star-Telegram (Dallas-Fort Worth), Jun. 04, 2010
Well blowouts are unusual, but certainly not unheard of in North Texas' Barnett Shale, the largest natural gas-producing area in the U.S.
On April 22, 2006, a blowout killed a worker, Robert Dale Gayan, 49, at an XTO Energy well site in Forest Hill, south of Fort Worth.
One killed in gas line explosion
From Staff Reports, Cleburne Times-Review, June 8, 2010
One person was killed and eight others were sent to hospitals on Monday in a natural gas explosion that generated a towering flame that could be seen from miles around.
U.S. exempted BP's Gulf of Mexico drilling from environmental impact study
By Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post, May 5, 2010
The Interior Department exempted BP's calamitous Gulf of Mexico drilling operation from a detailed environmental impact analysis last year, according to government documents, after three reviews of the area concluded that a massive oil spill was unlikely.
Schwarzenegger pulls plug on offshore oil project
By Kevin Yamamura, Sacramento Bee, May. 3, 2010
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger withdrew his support Monday for a controversial new offshore oil drilling project off the Santa Barbara coast in the wake of a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Gulf oil spill fuels West Coast tanker fears
By CBC News, May 3, 2010
B.C. environmentalists see the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as a warning about risks oil and gas development could pose to Canada's West Coast.
Environmentalists in B.C. say the oil spill off the U.S. coast should serve as a warning about risks the oil and gas industry could pose to the West Coast of Canada.
Problems with big oil that won't go away
Tim Webb, The Observer, May 2, 2010
The Deepwater Horizon spill, which is threatening swaths of the Gulf of Mexico's coast, again raises questions about how rigorously safety and environmental regulations are enforced
President Barack Obama has a mission to protect our coast and our economy
Editorial, The Times-Picayune, May 02, 2010
President Barack Obama will find a disaster of massive proportions when he arrives on the Louisiana coast today.
