TC Power Corp. pegged the price of cleanup and restoration from December’s oil spill from its Keystone pipeline at an estimated US$480 million.
The Keystone pipeline system suffered the worst oil spill in its historical past on December 7, 2022, when oil leaked right into a creek in Washington County, Kansas.
The dimensions of the spill was initially estimated at 14,000 barrels, though TC Power revised that determine all the way down to 12,937 barrels on Thursday.
Whereas a lot of the 4,324-kilometer pipeline system reopened every week after the spill, a 154-kilometer part that runs from simply south of Steele Metropolis, Nebraska to Cushing, Oklahoma remained closed till the top of December.
The corporate put a price ticket on the occasion for the primary time Thursday, saying it’s working with its insurers to maximise price restoration.
“This estimate could also be adjusted as we proceed to progress work on the web site,” the corporate mentioned in a information launch.
TC Power additionally launched the outcomes of its investigation into the reason for the leak. The corporate mentioned Thursday that the spill was attributable to a mixture of things, together with bending stress on the pipe and a welding error.
READ MORE: TC Power restarts Keystone pipeline extension after oil spill restore
It mentioned the welding flaw led to a crack that grew over time attributable to bending stress fatigue, resulting in the leak. The reason for the bending stress remains to be being investigated.
The corporate added {that a} metallurgical evaluation recognized no issues with the energy or materials properties of the pipe or fabricated fittings, and the pipeline is working inside its operational design and inside the pipeline design’s most working strain.
Restoration and restore efforts on the web site are persevering with, TC Power mentioned, and the corporate can also be conducting extra in-line inspections in addition to an evaluation of different segments of pipe with probably comparable circumstances.
Pipelines are broadly thought-about by consultants to be a safer technique of crude transportation than both rail or vehicles. Nonetheless, the danger of a spill has lengthy been an element cited by environmentalists and others who’ve opposed North American pipeline building initiatives lately.
Fears about potential pipeline leaks (in addition to considerations about local weather change) have helped gasoline opposition to TC Power’s proposed Keystone XL enlargement. That mission would have crossed Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska, however its allow was lastly canceled in 2021 by US President Joe Biden.
A report launched final yr by the US Authorities Accountability Workplace (GOA), a congressional watchdog company, mentioned Keystone’s accident historical past since 2010 has been just like different crude oil pipelines, however the severity of spills has worsened lately.
In 2017, a Keystone leak led to a spill of about 6,600 barrels in North Dakota, whereas in 2019 the pipeline spilled about 4,500 barrels of oil in South Dakota.
In each of those spills, the GOA report recognized “building points” resulting in the fabric rupture of pipe or weld materials as a number one issue.
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