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Empresas y finanzas

U.S. regulator blocks restart of Enbridge Line 14


    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. pipeline regulator on Tuesday blocked Enbridge from restarting its Line 14, calling last week's spill on the pipeline "absolutely unacceptable."

    The Transportation Department's pipeline safety agency issued a corrective order to Enbridge that will require the company to submit a restart plan to the agency for approval before resuming operations, as well as an independent evaluation of the company's integrity management plan.

    U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood blasted Enbridge over the leak of more than a 1,000 barrels of crude in a field in Wisconsin, which shut its 318,000 barrel per day pipeline on Friday.

    "I will soon meet with Enbridge's leadership team, and they will need to demonstrate why they should be allowed to continue to operate this Wisconsin pipeline without either a significant overhaul or a complete replacement," LaHood said in a statement.

    "Accidents like the one in Wisconsin are absolutely unacceptable."

    Enbridge's latest spill came almost two years to the day that another ruptured Enbridge line fouled part of the Kalamazoo River in Michigan, spilling more than 20,000 barrels of oil.

    (Reporting by Ayesha Rascoe; Editing by Maureen Bavdek)