Fuel expert: Line 6 oil spill won’t affect oil, gas prices

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Wis. (Civic Media) – An oil spill last month in Jefferson County won’t affect oil or fuel prices in Wisconsin, according to a fuel expert.

That’s because the amount of oil spilled is very small compared to the daily flow of oil through the Enbridge Line 6-B pipeline.

According to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, a part of the U.S. Dept. of Transportation, a faulty valve caused the spill, which is estimated to be about 1,650 barrels.

Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy.com head of petroleum analysis for the U.S., said that there will be no impacts to oil or fuel prices due to the spill.

“Line 6B carries roughly 667,000 barrels of oil per day, so to put the 1,650 barrels into context, that is less than one-fifth of one percentage point of the amount of oil this pipeline carries,” De Haan said. “The average refinery in the U-S can handle about 200,000 barrels a day, so about 1,700 barrels is pretty small for impacting the price of oil. So this will have no impact on the price of oil at all.”

The spill comes days after new lawsuits were filed challenging the permits Enbridge received for rerouting its Line 5 pipeline in northern Wisconsin. The challenges are being made due to concerns about environmental impacts in the event of an oil spill.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ environmental impact statement found the possibility of a spill or pipe failure to be “extremely remote.”

According to the U.S. DOT, nobody was hurt because of the Jefferson Co. oil spill.

Enbridge Line 6-B connects from Superior, Wis. to Indiana, according to federal mapping data.