PETROL PIPE LINE TAPPED

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23848, 18 January 1943, Page 3

PETROL PIPE LINE TAPPED

15,000 GALLONS LOST (0.C.) SYDNEY, January 8. A man who tapped the 30 miles petrol pipe line which runs from the Glen Davis shale oil works to Newnes, west of Sydney, was either injured or badly scared off by the 40ft jet of petrol which soared from the hole. In his hurried departure he left seven empty drums, a plug and a petrol-sodden shirt. Pressure in the six-inch pipeline is 600 pounds to the square inch, and a jet escaping at this pressure can cut through flesh like a knife. An employee at Newnes slipped recently while repairing a leak, and the oil jet struck a hand, causing a hole. Police said that if the thief had been struck by the jet of petrol from the half-inch hole he had bored in the line, he would have been killed or blinded. , , . The discovery of the leak was made when the gauges showed that the pressure in the pipe had dropped to zero. A patrolman inspected the line and found the leak where the line runs through rugged country, but easily accessible to a road, three miles from Newnes. About 15,000 gallons of petrol had run to waste. Surrounding trees were stained* to a height of 40ft, and the ground was soaked, with petrol. This was the third attempt made to tamper with the pipe line.