Resolved, then: it's either Cabal shutting down their pipeline for market-rigging purposes, or white-hats/patriots-in-control shutting it down to thwart a potential terrorist plot they'd gotten wind of of. --Blowing up a pipeline now doesn't result in that massive of a fire; it'd only burn what was in that particular section.

It also occurs to me that surreptitious travel by "pig" is now no longer possible, although I suspect that such a thing was never more than the provenance of Bond films.