In Depth

 

Recent events have raised concerns about the safety and transportation for oil. The rupture in the Exxon Pegasus pipeline in Arkansas is still under investigation, but recent information indicates that about 12,000 barrels of an oil-and-water mixture have been recovered from the site. A train derailment in Minnesota led to a spill of 700 barrels of crude oil. Given the politically charged debate over the Keystone XL pipeline, it does not come as much of a surprise that opponents have used these events as a talking point against the pipeline and oil sands crude. The debate warrants a review of some statistics on the safest way to transport oil. 

 

Between 2005 and 2009, pipelines transported nearly 17 times more oil than rail.  In the same period, railway travel reported more than twice as many incidents related to the transport of hazardous materials – 718 as compared to 354 for pipelines – and 34 incidents per ton-mile traveled for every 1 incident via pipeline.  Significantly, 60-90 percent of hazardous material incidents during rail transport go unreported, so this comparison is conservative.

 

Critics argue that the more corrosive nature of crude oil from tar sands will increase the number of pipeline incidents.   However, corrosion has accounted for only one such incident since 1993, and resulted in a leak of just over 5,000 barrels.  

 

One modest pipeline is the equivalent of 75 2,000-barrel tank cars per day.  To replace the Pegasus pipeline that ruptured in Arkansas, 33 tank cars would need to run from Illinois to Texas each day.  Replacing the Keystone XL pipeline would require 415 tank cars each day traveling from Montana to Texas.  That would take five trains, each a mile long, traveling over 1,600 miles — a trip that takes 5 days. The choice, therefore, is putting two thousand rail cars carrying oil sands on the rails each day or one pipeline.  Rail also doesn’t require the same permits, safety measures, reporting procedures, or regulation as a pipeline.

 

As the United States produces more oil and imports more oil from Canadian reserves, it’s important that this oil is transported in the safest and most efficient way possible.  The Keystone XL pipeline will be the most advanced pipeline built to-date, with considerable safety measures in place to account for the special needs of heavy tar sands crude.  If we allow the recent spill in Arkansas to detract support for this project, tar sands oil will inevitably be carried by train, a less safe, less regulated, and less efficient mode of travel.   Pipelines remain the safest and most efficient way to move energy products over land; Keystone XL is no exception.

 

Graphic data from Furchtgott-Roth, Diana. Pipelines Are Safest for Transportation of Oil and Gas. Manhattan Institute, June 2012. Web. 1 April 2013.