Feds Allow North Dakota Oil Pipeline to Restart

Regulators think lightning strike may have caused oil spill

Tesoro Corp. on Friday restarted a North Dakota crude oil pipeline that ruptured and spilled more than 20,000 barrels of oil in a North Dakota wheat field.

The San Antonio-based company shut down the 35-mile long underground pipeline on Sept. 29, after a farmer discovered oil seeping from the ground in his wheat field near Tioga, in the northwest corner of the state.

Tesoro said it had received and accepted a safety order from the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration that sets conditions to restart the pipeline.