Seal Lake 08-34-082-15 W5M Pipeline Release
Presentation to Northern Sunrise County
March 24th, 2015
Craig Sinclair
Manager, Special Projects
MURPHY OIL CORPORATION
www.m urp h yo i lc o rp.c om
NYSE: MUR
1
Our Purpose Today
Our purpose today is to:
• Provide Council with an overview of the 8-34 Pipeline Release;
• Describe Murphy’s initial response to the incident;
• Describe our current activities and future plans; and
• Answer any questions you may have arising from this presentation
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Murphy’s Current Seal Lake Operations (2015)
 Murphy has been operating
in the Peace River area
since 2004
 Current Seal Lake
operations are made up of:
 91 Well Pads
 4 Central Treating
Facilities
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The Event
• On March 1st, 2015 a Murphy Seal Lake field operator observed condensate ponding at surface in
three separate locations over approximately one 1 km of a 7.8 km, 3” diameter pipeline.
• The pipeline, shown on the next slide, was immediately shut in and the area secured.
• The line is located completely within Murphy’s Seal Lake Development area and is used to deliver
condensate to several well pads within the Seal Lake field,
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Seal Lake 8-34 Pipeline Location and Release Site
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Estimated Size of the Release
• The three surface areas affected by the condensate and shown on the next slide were, respectively,
approximately:
• Area 1
• Area 2
• Area 3
8,000 m2
1,400 m2
300 m2
(roughly 80 m wide by 100 m long);
• Murphy subsequently was able to determine that the pipeline may have been leaking for some
time and as much as 2,700 m3 (17,000 bbl) of product may have been spilled.
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The Spill Surface Locations
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What is Condensate?
• Condensate is normally distilled from either crude oil or processed from natural gas and is a
mixture of various low molecular weight (lighter) compounds such as propane, butane and ethane.
• Condensate often also tends to contain relatively higher proportions of BTEX (Benzene, Toluene,
Ethyl Benzene and Xylene) than does the parent crude oil or natural gas.
• Condensate is normally liquid at lower air temperatures but evaporates rapidly as air temperature
increases.
• Condensate has a consistency similar to gasoline and like gasoline, is very flammable and even
explosive.
• Condensate also evaporates easily and while these vapours dissipate rapidly, in large amounts the
vapours themselves can be very toxic for workers and so must be handled with care.
• Murphy uses condensate to dilute produced bitumen at the well head in order that the resulting
“dilbit” can be piped directly to one of Seal Lake’s central treatment facilities.
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Immediate Response to the Release
• Based on the information from the field, Murphy quickly determined that:
• The condensate was clearly not contained within a bermed or lined site and therefore potentially could
migrate either below ground into area groundwater or overland into nearby surface water; and
• The spilled material was also very volatile creating a risk of fire, explosion and/or the release of fumes
that would be dangerous to workers in the immediate vicinity of the release.
• As a result:
• The area was immediately closed off to all non-essential personnel;
• Any responders to the event were advised they were required to use self contained air and monitor for
both potentially dangerous contaminants (e.g. benzene) and explosive;
• The Murphy Corporate Emergency Response Plan was initiated; and
• The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) was notified.
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Results of the Initial Site Inspection
• With worker safety addressed, site inspections were then carried out to ascertain what level
of risk the condensate appeared to pose to public health & safety and/or the environment
• The initial site inspections with the AER indicated that:
• Shutting in and draining the pipeline appeared to have effectively stopped the surface spread of the
condensate;
• There appeared to be no obvious or immediate risk to public health or safety from either atmospheric
emissions or contamination of groundwater; and
• Local surface water bodies did not appear to be at immediate risk of contamination from fluids migrating
off site
•
The site inspections also confirmed, however, that the risk to worker safety continued to be extremely high
and that:
Preserving worker safety would need to be paramount in the design and timing
of all additional responses to the spill!
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Initial Steps in the Murphy Spill Response
In order to ensure both worker and public health & safety as well as the environment
continued to be protected, Murphy next proceeded to:
• Improve access to each site, using rig mats to reduce impacts to the forest floor (complete);
• Test all other Murphy pipelines and facilities within Seal Lake to confirm no similar risk
existed elsewhere (ongoing);
• Continue to require strict on-site safety procedures, including the use of contained air, for all
personnel in proximity to the spill sites (ongoing);
• Initiate a wildlife monitoring plan to detect and deter wildlife from entering the area
(ongoing);
• Begin a comprehensive surface water sampling program to ensure local water bodies
remained unaffected (ongoing); and
• Carry out a subsurface contamination delineation program by constructing bore holes and
sampling groundwater to establish the subsurface extent of the condensate (ongoing).
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Murphy’s Surface Condensate Containment/Diversion Plan
• To date, ongoing surface and groundwater monitoring continues to confirm that:
• No detectable levels of hydrocarbons are being observed in area surface water bodies; and
• The subsurface spread of the condensate appears to have:
• Extended horizontally only a few meters beyond the three surface areas affected by the
spill; and
• Been largely confined vertically by a clay layer immediately below the pipeline.
• Matrix Solutions was retained to provide expert advice on site clean up and eventual remediation
and concluded Murphy’s initial efforts should focus on ensuring the surface condensate
continued to be contained.
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Murphy’s Surface Condensate Containment/Diversion Plan cont:
• On March 12th, 2015 a general Containment/Diversion Plan was submitted to the AER and on
March 13th a more detailed Plan was submitted and approved
• The detailed Plan, shown in the next three figures, consists of:
• A series of trenches dug down to clay and lined to capture contaminants migrating off site;
and
• A set of clay berms to divert uncontaminated surface water around the three sites.
• On March 14th, 2015 the Containment/Diversion Plan was initiated and work at all three sites
was completed March 21st, 2015
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Area 1
Containment/Diversion Plan
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Area 2
Containment/Diversion Plan
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Area 3
Containment/Diversion Plan
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Current Status of the Release
• Murphy now believes that :
• There is no new condensate moving into any of the three sites;
• There is no risk to public health & safety or the environment beyond the three sites;
• All steps possible to protect the health and safety of the spill response team have been taken.
• In addition Murphy is comfortable that:
• There are no other potential sources of additional condensate from a Murphy facility;
• The condensate at surface and in the shallow organic soils is effectively confined;
• The risk of uncontaminated water entering the site has been managed effectively; and
• There is some natural confinement and no evidence that subsurface contamination is spreading.
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Next Steps
•
Natural weathering will tend to gradually reduce the amount of condensate confined within each
site
•
However, the current volume of condensate contained within each site will, if not actively
reduced:
•
Very likely continue to create an unacceptable level of risk to worker safety;
•
Potentially limit the types of tools that might be used to complete site remediation and
reclamation;
•
Potentially migrate further off site through groundwater; or
•
Could, if the surface containment is overwhelmed by a weather event still move off site and into
area water bodies.
• To address this issue, Murphy is now examining ways to actively safely remove condensate and
contaminated groundwater form Areas 1 and 2.
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Proposed Liquid Recovery Plan
• The proposed Liquid Recovery Plan uses active groundwater pumping of contaminated water
coupled with Multi-Phase Extraction (MPE) of liquid hydrocarbon’s and any associated vapours.
• The Plan is expected to reduce the risk to worker safety and the risk of further condensate
migration off site both above and below ground
• The active removal of liquids should also increase the potential options available for eventual site
remediation and reclamation
• The Liquid Recovery Plan design is almost complete and is expected to be submitted to the AER for
its review and approval by mid-week.
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Future Sources of Information/Engagement
• Murphy has now provided 2 media releases on the spill and also made direct contact with most if
not all of its various stakeholders.
• Going forward, Murphy will be posting all new information onto a new website,
www.Mightypeace.org including the various plans etc. submitted to the AER.
• Murphy will continue to proactively reach out to its stakeholders in order to establish the most
effective process for providing additional information.
• Murphy also intends to continue to make itself fully available to any group or agency that wishes to
discuss the spill or the response plan further.
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Thank You!
Thank you for your time and attention.
?
We would be pleased to try to answer any questions you might have
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