Canadian crude oil storage spared by Oklahoma quake
Canadian crude oil continues to flow through the important storage hub of Cushing, Okla. following Sunday’s powerful earthquake that caused extensive damage in the city and surrounding area.
Enbridge Inc. spokesperson Michael Barnes confirmed Monday that the company inspected its pipelines and oil storage tanks in Cushing after a 5.0-magnitude quake shook buildings throughout the city and could reportedly be felt in neighbouring states.
Barnes said there was no damage to the company’s facilities and oil continues to flow in and out of the hub.
Similarly, TransCanada Corp. spokesperson Terry Cunha said there had been no damage to his company’s facilities in the area, a critically important hub for oil shipments en route to the U.S. Gulf Coast, and that TransCanada’s facilities were still operating.
The powerful earthquake was the third measuring above 5.0 in magnitude in Oklahoma this year. Governor Mary Fallin said on Twitter that officials were looking for natural gas leaks and surveying damage, but there was no reported damage at the area’s many storage terminals.
She also said that 40 residents had been moved from a retirement home to a shelter because their building had been damaged by the quake.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, Cushing contains 13 per cent of all the oil storage capacity in the United States and is the second-largest hub in the country, holding tens of millions of barrels of oil storage capacity.
Among Canadian midstream companies, Enbridge and TransCanada have the most oil storage capacity at the hub. Those two companies export Canadian volumes to the U.S. and shipments headed for the U.S. Gulf Coast are often routed through Cushing.
TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline would have also passed through the city in Oklahoma.