An explosion and consequent fire shut down four oil pipelines that together carry 1.5 million barrels a day, or 15% of US imports (the Endbridge system), from Canada to the US. Two of the pipelines have been restarted, but the third and fourth (at 450,000 bpd and 700,000 bpd respectively) are still inactive. Besides the significant "co-location" vulnerability shown here (as in multiple pipelines damaged by a single explosion/fire/leak), another key element is the "input" vulnerability of maxed out refineries (see the brief: "Infrastructure Meltdowns" for an overview of the different types of network vulnerabilities) -- these pipelines feed landlocked refiners in the Midwest, beholden to Canadian supplies of crude.
NOTE: This comes on the heels of a mass arrests in Saudi Arabia (200+) to prevent what has been termed a multi-cell plot to sabotage a oil logistics site (which is potentially indicative of attempts to use indirect attacks on dependent networks to cause cross network cascades).
Recent Comments