Extreme Cold Weather Causing Oil Spills in North Dakota; 60 Reports Over Past Week

BISMARCK, N.D.—Bitter cold weather is causing a rash of spills in the oil fields of North Dakota as well as a slowdown in production, regulators say. North Dakota has seen multiple days of frigid weather with windchills at times reaching as low as minus 70 degrees (minus 57 Celsius) in its Bakken oil fields. Regulators say that strains workers and equipment, which can result in mishaps that lead to spills. More than 60 spills and other gas or oil environmental problems have been reported in the last week, according to the state’s spill dashboard. “This is probably the worst little stretch that I’ve seen since I took over the spill program” a decade ago, North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality Spill Investigation Program Manager Bill Suess told the Bismarck Tribune....