By Jeffrey Jones, Reuters, Nov 3, 2010
* Sources say Line 6A shut late Tuesday as a precaution
* Pipeline placed back into service Wednesday afternoon
* Line was shut for eight days in September (Updates with pipeline restart)
CALGARY, Alberta, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Enbridge Inc (ENB.TO) shut down one of its major oil pipelines in the U.S. Midwest for the second time in two months to investigate high-pressure alarms, the company said on Wednesday.
The 670,000 barrel-per-day pipeline, a main artery for Canadian crude shipments to the United States, was turned off as a precaution late Tuesday and placed back into service on Wednesday afternoon, Enbridge spokesman Larry Springer said in an email.
The pipeline, which extends to Griffith, Indiana, from Superior, Wisconsin, was shut for eight days in September after it sprung a leak near Romeoville, Illinois.
It has since been running at 80 percent of its operating pressure.
At the time, the company was also dealing with the shutdown of the 290,000 bpd Line 6B and an oil spill that fouled a river system in Michigan.
It was out of service for more than two months. The incident, which came as the BP Plc (BP.L) Gulf of Mexico spill was fresh in the public consciousness, fueled concerns over the safety of pipelines among U.S. lawmakers and residents who live near them.
The outages were a major factor in a big drop in Canadian heavy oil prices and jump in U.S. prices. Trading sources said that the 6A's quick restart this time meant the incident should not have a marked effect on oil markets.
Since the summer's incidents, Enbridge has boosted monitoring and testing of its system, which are the main arteries for Canadian crude oil exports to the United States.
In its third-quarter results on Wednesday, the company took an C$85 million ($84 million) charge to earnings to account for the cost of cleaning up the July 26 6B spill near Marshall, Michigan.
(Additional reporting by Ayesha Rascoe in Washington; Editing by David Gregorio)
