Construction of the Enbridge crude oil pipeline from Flanagan, Ill., to Cushing, Okla., will start in early August. THE NEW LINE will be roughly parallel to the Spearhead Pipeline, constructed in 1952 by Sinclair Oil Co. and purchased in 2003 by Enbridge. It carries 190,000 barrels of oil a day.
Enbridge and U.S. Pipeline, which will build the south half of the 600-mile transportation system, had a come-and-go open house here Thursday to appraise local folks of what to expect.
Statistics are staggering. The steel pipeline will be constructed in 80-foot joints, 36 inches in diameter with half-inch thick walls. Each joint weighs 17,000 pounds with costs of about $17,000. The pipe, of recycled steel, is being produced in mills in Regina, Canada, and Oregon.
According to Lorraine Little, an Enbridge public affairs officer, the pipeline will be constructed simultaneously in four 150-mile “spreads,” beginning next month. Michels Pipeline will lay the first 300 miles, U.S. Pipeline the second.
Two years of preliminary work is drawing to a close, Little said. During that time surveys and right-of-way acquisition have occurred, as well historic, prehistoric, biological and environmental studies to ensure the pipeline’s construction won’t be a disruption.
The construction phase is expected to take about a year, with the first crude oil flowing sometime next summer. Cost of the project has been put at $2.6 billion.
About 700 workers will be involved in construction of each 150-mile spread, with the intention of hiring half locally. In Allen County’s case that means workers hailing from eastern Kansas and western Missouri, said Kelly Osborn, president of U.S. Pipeline.
Whenever possible, local vendors will be used, he added.
The pipe joints will be stockpiled in 11 pipe yards along the project’s route including one at the north edge of Humboldt. Osborn said pipe should start arriving at the Humboldt yard in a week or so.
While the pipe is steel, it has a fusion-bonded epoxy coating to inhibit external corrosion, Little said. Also, when joints are welded, each weld will be X-rayed to ensure its efficiency, a more exacting safety measure than is required, she said.
Construction is bound to be fascinating and the company will welcome onlookers — at a safe distance.
“We want to keep people informed and also safe,” said Yancey Forsythe, an Enbridge safety specialist.
He said fencing, guards and other systems would ensure a safe environment for workers and the public.
Certain to be of interest will be when the pipeline is taken under the Neosho River, just north of the U.S. 169 bridge south of Humboldt.
The pipe will be welded together on the west side of the river and then pulled through a tunnel under the river. The same procedure will be used with other rivers and smaller streams and paved roads. County roads will be cut, which will require detours for a day or two.
About 600,000 barrels of oil will flow through the new, larger pipeline each day, from an Enbridge collection terminal at Superior, Wis., where it has 8.5 million barrels in storage. The oil’s destination will be Cushing’s mammoth storage of 20 million barrels. From there it will be redirected to refineries, some in the Gulf Coast region.
The oil comes fromthe Bakken fields in North Dakota and Montana and central Canada, where it is extracted from underground sand formations.
Little said the Canadian oil is produced from conventional wells, as well as mining. Wells that go deep into the sand formation use hot water and steam to thin the heavy oil so it will flow to the surface.
Enbridge is solely in the transportation business, Little said, and not in the production of oil.
In the pipeline Enbridge to route oil across county
