Source: Jacob Slaton, Reuters

The spills have come at a tenuous time for the oil and pipeline industries, as US President Barack Obama prepares to announce his final decision on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline from the Alberta tar sands to Port Arthur, Texas.

Enbridge recorded its fourth spill in two months along its Norman Wells Pipeline through the Northwest Territories. ExxonMobil's Pegasus Pipeline coated the streets of Mayflower, Arkansas, with diluted bitumen from the Alberta Tar Sands - the same kind the proposed Keystone XL would carry.

In Alberta, Suncor was furiously downplaying a leak from one of its massive waste ponds into the Athabasca River. This comes on the heels of a leaked memo to Canada Resources Minister Joe Oliver, which acknowledged routine spillage from these ponds throughout the tar sands.

Michigan was hit with another spill - this time up to 500 gallons of hydraulic oil spilled into the Lansing Grand River during an equipment malfunction at a local utility.

Does so many spills in one week mean spills are just business as usual for the oil companies?