MINOT, N.D. - A chemical malfunction in a local oil pipeline has sidelined a lot of truckers.
Cenex Harvest States says it happened along its pipeline at the Minot terminal.
An additive that is supposed to disappear before it goes to diesel fuel pumps is showing up in the fuel. That it has led to engine problems and forced some truckers to change their fuel filters almost daily.
CHS says as soon as it discovered the problem, workers took steps to correct it.
It’s also reimbursing retailers and customers.
While the fuel problems are isolated to diesel drawn from the Minot terminal, CHS estimates about 12 tanker loads of the bad diesel fuel went out to service stations.
"We were able to trace it back to our fuel distribution terminal in Minot which is one of the outlets for our pipeline that comes from our refinery in Laurel, Montana. We discovered the problem wasn’t with our fuel, it was with an additive product that is used to move the fuel smoothly down the pipeline and it is supposed to remove itself by the time it gets to the terminal and has been pumped and loaded out to customers," says CHS spokesperson Lani Jordan.
That’s a reference to what pipeliners commonly cause “slickum,” a polymer that makes fuel in pipelines more slippery so that they have less friction with pipeline walls.
I've heard of the occasional "oops!" with transmix getting into product, jet fuel/av gas & diesel/gasoline mixes. Engine damage follwed that. I was not aware of the use of slickum.
ReplyDeleteI understand there's still some worry about the biodiesel potential to leave cross contamination residue in pipelines.