The major oil spill from a pipeline rupture in Saskatchewan, Canada has cost 107 million USD to clean up according to pipeline operator Husky Energy of Calgary. This is an increase of 17 million USD from last year’s estimate of 90 million USD. The pipeline rupture spilled 225,000 litres of heavy oil mixed with diluent on to the banks of the North Saskatchewan River, with around 40% of the spill reaching the river.
"We haven't put the pipeline back in service because we want to have all of the investigations finished, particularly at the provincial level," "They want to make sure they've actually got to the root cause so we are absolutely sure that any revised installation fully is engineered to avoid any future incident like this." CEO Rob Peabody
Husky blamed ground movement for the pipeline rupture in a report issued last year. An independent report from the Saskatchewan government is expected by the end of March 2017. Husky will face greatly increased future compliance costs because of the incident.
The costs are to be borne by Husky Midstream Limited Partnership, a consortium that Husky holds a 35% interest. Husky stated that about 88 million USD have been recovered through insurance.
Image credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS / Jason Franson