ConocoPhillips owned oil on train that derailed in Sask., leaked 1.5M litres
Company says questions about derailment should go to rail line or investigators
ConocoPhillips has confirmed it owned crude oil on a train that derailed and leaked about 1.5 million litres of oil in rural Saskatchewan two weeks ago.
"I can confirm that it was ConocoPhillips oil that was being transported," Evelyn Ferchuk, a spokesperson for the Houston-based oil company, said via email.
Canadian Pacific Railway (CP), which owns the rail line, had declined to say which oil company was involved.
CP train 516-398 train was carrying the oil to Oklahoma. It left from Rosyth, Alta., east of the Hardisty terminal, a large heavy crude oil storage hub for Canada.
The train's emergency brakes were activated west of Guernsey, Sask., just after midnight on Dec. 9. It's not clear what caused several tank cars to derail. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is investigating.
ConocoPhillips declined to answer other questions, including whether the incident has the company rethinking the use of 117R retrofitted tank cars.
A former TSB investigator said those tank cars are not as thick as the brand-new type of car championed by Transport Canada in the wake of the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster.
"Any questions related to last week's incident including clean up, notifications, volume estimates, the derailment, the cause, etc. should be directed to CP or government investigators," the ConocoPhillips spokesperson wrote.
The most complex type of probe
The TSB has called the incident a Class 3 investigation — the most complex type of investigation undertaken by the agency.
"Class 3 investigations are generally completed within 450 days," according to the incident page for the derailment.
Some Class 3 investigations stretch past that timeline, however, such as the one involving the Dec. 13 crash of domestic passenger flight from remote Fond du Lac, Sask.
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