China-subsidiary company apologizes, says cleanup underway for one of North America’s largest-ever oil spills on land Nexen Energy apologized Friday for an oil sands pipeline leak in the Canadian province of Alberta that is one of North America’s largest-ever oil-related spills on land, and said its cleanup crews were working around the clock. The pipeline leaked 31,500 barrels of emulsion — a mixture of bitumen, water and sand, the equivalent of 5 million liters of tar sands oil, or 1.3 million gallons. Nexen, a subsidiary of China’s CNOOC Ltd., said it is still trying to find the root cause of the leak in the new pipeline, which was installed last year. The company has found a visible breach about the size of a hand. The incident is another blow for the environmental record of the oil sands industry, already under fire from activists for its carbon-intensive production process. Ron […]