HOUSTON, April 8 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell Plc.'s U.S. subsidiary on Monday boosted the estimate of howmuch crude oil was released by a leak from its West Columbiapipeline in east Houston, the company said.
Shell Oil Co. said 940 barrels of crude are estimated tohave leaked near Vince Bayou in east Houston from the 15-mile(24.1-kilometre), 16 inch (40.6-centimetre) West Columbiapipeline. Previously Shell has estimated a release of 700barrels of crude.
Shell and its contractors were cleaning up an estimated 50to 60 barrels of crude that leaked into Vince Bayou. The sheenfrom the oil in the Bayou has been contained by a hard boom toprevent the crude from flowing into Buffalo Bayou, which theHouston Ship Channel runs through.
Workers are preparing to excavate around a section ofpipeline to identify where the leak originated, Shell said. Theyare also preparing to remove oil believed buried underground.
Shell shut the pipeline on March 29, when a drop in pressurealong the pipeline was detected at Shell's control center.
The pipeline runs from an Enterprise Products terminal in the Genoa area in southeast Houston to a MagellanMidstream Partners tank farm in east Houston.
