ExxonMobil is planning to restart the southern leg of its Pegasus pipeline at the beginning of July following a 15-month shutdown. The pipeline carries some 95 000 bbls/d of crude oil from Pakota, Illinois, to Nederland, Texas, and was shutdown following an oil spill in Mayflower, Arkansas, on 29 March 2013.
Exxon sought permission to restart the southern leg of the pipeline in January 2014 and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) approved the company’s plans at the end of March. According to reports, separate federal regulatory filings by Sunoco Logistics and an ExxonMobil pipeline subsidiary confirmed a restart date of 1 July 2014. The company stated it would conduct a number of internal inspections on the running pipeline this summer.
Meanwhile, the 648 mile northern segment of the pipeline, which runs from Pakota, Illinois, to Corsicana, remains closed. Exxon is planning to reopen this section following a series of hydrostatic tests, which will gauge the strength of its seams and rid the pipe of cracks. This process could take more than a year.
Edited from various sources by Rosalie Starling