Reply #4: Update from Reuters

[Ghost Dog]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071129/bs_nm/enbridge_fire_dc

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The explosion about 3.0 miles southeast of its Clearbrook, Minnesota, terminal, shut down a line that carries an estimated 1.9 million bpd of Canadian crude, equivalent to about 9 percent of total U.S. oil demand.

Oil prices roared more than 4 percent higher on the news, with traders fearing that the outage would leave mid-continent refiners short of crude. By 5:15 a.m. EST U.S. futures were up $3.51 at $94.13 a barrel, rebounding from Wednesday's fall.

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Canada is the biggest supplier of foreign crude to the United States, accounting for almost one-fifth of its over 10 million bpd of imports, government data show.

Nearly all of that is delivered via the Enbridge system.

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The U.S. holds 700 million barrels in its Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) in four sites around the Gulf, although there is limited capacity to pump those supplies to northern refiners.

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A county official said the fire could burn for three days.

"The area under fire now is 100 feet by 100 feet," Jeanine Brand, County Attorney and Public Information Officer for Clearwater County, said by telephone.

Enbridge was not able to say what caused the blast but said it was working with federal and state authorities to begin a thorough investigation.

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A lasting disruption to Lines 3 and 4 -- which combined pump over 1.1 million bpd of mainly heavy and medium crude -- would put a strain on landlocked Midwest refiners such as Flint Hills Resources and Marathon Oil Corp (MRO.N), which have few immediate alternatives to the Canadian supplies.

That in turn could drain stocks in the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery point for New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) oil futures, although the Enbridge line does not flow directly there.

Refineries owned by Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N), BP Plc (BP.L) and Murphy Oil Corp (MUR.N) are also linked to the pipeline.

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