A pipeline buried under three New England states that carried foreign crude oil from the Port of Portland to refineries in Montreal for 75 years has been mothballed. The oil has stopped flowing.
The 236 mile long pipeline was built to provide for the safe transport of crude oil to Quebec at a time when German U-boats that could sink oil tankers were patrolling the western Atlantic.
But the flow dropped to zero in January, according to state data, and there were no tanker deliveries in February.
The amount of oil flowing through the pipeline has been falling for years, and the completion last fall of a major pipeline reversal project in Canada has left the pipeline of no use. The refineries in Quebec now get their oil from the vast oilsands reserves in Alberta.
Edited from various sources by Elizabeth Corner
Sources: Press Herald, Canadian Manufacturing