Back online: Marathon restarts pipeline after deadly explosion.
Marathon restarts pipe shut by blast
US player Marathon Oil restarted a crude oil pipeline supplying its Garyville, Louisiana, refinery last night, a company spokeswoman said today.
The pipeline was shut Tuesday by an explosion that killed one worker and injured three others while they were welding a pipe on a sump tank near the St. James Pipeline that supplies crude oil to the 256,000-barrel-per-day refinery, according to the Louisiana State Police and local government officials.
Marathon wanted to determine the pipeline was undamaged by the blast before restarting it.
Graves declined to say if the pipeline was operating at full capacity in a Reuters report.
The Garyville refinery continued to operate with crude oil in its inventory while the pipeline was shut.
The four men were working on part of Marathon's project to expand Garyville's refining capacity by 180,000 bpd.
The St. James Pipeline facility, located 56 miles west of New Orleans, takes crude oil from the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port's LOCAP pipeline and ships it to the Garyville refinery.
In addition to its own crude oil storage tanks, the Garyville refinery can receive crude oil and intermediate feedstocks directly from Mississippi River barges docking at the refinery.