Police press search in Canada pipeline attacks

VANCOUVER, British Columbia Oct 17 (Reuters) - Canadian police asked the public for help on Friday in their search for a saboteur, or saboteurs, responsible for two explosions in the past week on natural gas pipelines in rural British Columbia.

Police believe the pipeline attacks near the town of Dawson Creek in northeast British Columbia are linked, and may be connected to a letter warning the "terrorist" energy industry to stop the "crazy expansion of deadly gas wells in our home lands."

The last explosion was discovered on Thursday, and both explosions involved pipelines that carried sour gas, which contains toxic hydrogen sulfide. Both attacks damaged but did not rupture the lines, causing only a small gas leak along a pipeline flange in the second incident, which was quickly sealed.

Investigators, including members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police anti-terrorism squad, collected evidence from the scenes, which were not far from the Alberta-British Columbia border.

"The intention of these criminal acts to harm important Canadian infrastructure is not being tolerated," police said in statement, which called on anyone who has information about the attacks to "do the right thing" and come forward.

Security has been stepped up around pipelines and other energy facilities in northeastern British Columbia, but experts say are limits to what can be done. The province has about 43,000 km (27,000 miles) of pipelines.

"You can put up all the chain link fences in the world. If they want to do it, they're going to do it," said Steve Simons, corporate affairs leader at the British Columbia Oil and Gas Commission.

Both lines were owned by EnCana Corp (ECA.TO), Canada's largest independent oil and gas producer, but EnCana is only one of several energy companies that work in the area.

EnCana said the most recent incident was on a line carrying between 40 million and 50 million cubic feet of gas a day. The first bombing was on a line carrying 60 million cubic feet per day. (Reporting Allan Dowd, Editing by Peter Galloway)