IEA monitors Canada-U.S. oil pipeline outage

By Muriel Boselli

PARIS (Reuters) - The International Energy Agency said on Thursday it was closely monitoring a pipeline outage that has halted a fifth of U.S. crude imports and added over $3 to oil prices.

The IEA, which advises 26 industrialized nations, can tap its members' emergency reserves to prevent a global energy crisis.

Lawrence Eagles, head of the IEA's oil and industry markets division, said it was too early to say how much of an impact the incident will have on the market.

An explosion hit a main pipeline that supplies Canadian crude to U.S. Midwest refineries on Wednesday, forcing operator Enbridge Inc to shut down four of its main pipelines.

"With any supply issue, we always monitor what is going on," But we have to have a better understanding of what the issue is at this point in time before making any comment," he said.

"You have to look at whether there are opportunities for re-routing supplies...and how long it's going to take for repairs," he added.

The pipeline carries an estimated 1.9 million barrels per day of Canadian crude to the United States, equivalent to about 9 percent of total U.S. oil demand.

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