Photo of oil spill on Ocean Man First Nation. Photo courtesy of Government of Saskatchewan.
The provincial government says there are no records of formal provincial inspections being done on the pipeline that recently ruptured on the Ocean Man First Nation.
The province says that’s because this line — which was built in 1968 — was only licenced retroactively in 2014, and records were not kept on inspections of unlicenced pipelines. Pipelines of this size were previously exempt from licensing requirements.
However, the operating company is required to inspect and maintain its pipe as a part of its licence.
The pipeline is currently owned by Tundra Energy, but was owned by Enbridge as recently as last year.
The government does say its Petroleum and Natural Gas Division has reviewed its records and can confirm that no incidents involving this pipeline have been recorded in its incident database since it was established in 1991.
During excavation work yesterday, a small hole was found on the top of the pipe situated on a weld connecting two segments of pipe.
The pipe in question is a 4″ steel pipeline — approximately two kilometres long — which forms part of the larger south east Saskatchewan crude oil gathering system.
Meanwhile, the province says there is no evidence from the initial visual inspection of the pipe that the break was the result of a ground disturbance.
It’s anticipated purging and excavation of the pipeline will be completed today.
Reclamation work continues, as does the provincial government’s investigation into the spill.
So far, 180,000 litres of the 200,000 litres that spilled has been recovered.
As well, 454.9 tonnes of soil has been removed from the site.
Tundra Energy is required to file an initial incident report within the next few days, as well as a detailed incident report with its assessment of the cause of the spill within 90 days.
The provincial government says the Ocean Man First Nation will continue to be kept apprised of any new developments.