Michigan oil spill alters local refinery output

8/11/2010

An oil spill into a southern Michigan waterway has interrupted the supply of Canadian crude oil to BP-Husky Refining LLC's Oregon refinery, although the suburban Toledo plant is able to do maintenance and other work during such disruptions.

Enbridge Inc.'s shutdown of its 30-inch pipeline, which leaked hundreds of thousands of gallons of crude oil into the Kalamazoo River near Marshall, Mich., on July 26, has hampered the Oregon refinery's production, although no employees have been idled, spokesman Mary Caprella said.

The refinery can process other types of crude, she said. But she declined to say how the refinery's daily output has changed.