TC Power Corp. has obtained regulatory approval to restart the remaining section of the Keystone pipeline that has been shut down because it suffered the worst oil spill within the pipeline’s historical past on Dec. 7.
The Calgary-based firm mentioned on Friday that the US Pipeline and Hazardous Supplies Security Administration had accredited a restart plan for the 154 km stretch of pipeline that runs from simply south of Steele Metropolis, Nebraska to Cushing, Oklahoma.
The corporate mentioned its restart plan would take a number of days and embrace rigorous testing and inspections. It didn’t present a date for when your entire pipeline system might be absolutely operational once more.
Instantly after the spill, which launched 14,000 barrels of oil right into a creek in Washington County, Kan., TC Power shut down the Keystone pipeline system, which stretches 4,324 km and helps transport Canadian and US crude oil to markets round North America. transport, closed.
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Chilly climate might delay restoration of oil from Keystone pipeline leak: TC Power
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Chilly climate might delay restoration of oil from Keystone pipeline leak: TC Power
TC Power restarted a lot of the pipeline at diminished strain on December 14, though the part that runs from simply south of Steele Metropolis, Nebraska to Cushing, Oklahoma remained closed.
TC Power and US regulators are nonetheless investigating the reason for the spill, which eclipsed a 2017 6,600-barrel spill in North Dakota and a 2019 4,500-barrel spill in South Dakota because the worst oil spills within the Keystone -pipeline’s historical past.
The 2017 spill was significantly a blow to the Canadian oil business. For the ten days the pipeline was shut down, a scarcity of transportation capability to each the U.S. storage heart in Cushing, Oklahoma and to refiners alongside the U.S. Gulf Coast precipitated a backlog of Canadian crude and compelled producers to promote barrels at a steeper low cost. bought.
Nonetheless, the worth reduce did not occur this time — partly as a result of Canada now has extra pipeline capability than it did. (The addition of Enbridge’s Line 3 substitute mission got here on-line in 2021, and Canada may have much more pipeline capability subsequent yr after the TransMountain growth mission comes on-line.)
However Rory Johnston, a Toronto-based oil markets analyst and founding father of the Commodity Context publication, mentioned even with that added capability, any future pipeline outages lasting quite a lot of weeks may nonetheless trigger important issues.
“The Keystone outage reminds us of our vulnerability,” Johnston mentioned in a Dec. 21 interview.
“All of our pipelines (in Canada) are pretty giant pipelines. We do not actually have that many pipelines. So if one thing goes improper with any of these property, we do not actually have a variety of resilience within the system. And I believe that is what Keystone confirmed us.”
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Pipelines are broadly thought-about by specialists to be a safer technique of crude transportation than both rail or vans. Nonetheless, the danger of a spill has lengthy been an element cited by environmentalists and others who’ve opposed North American pipeline development tasks lately.
For instance, fears about potential pipeline leaks (in addition to considerations about local weather change) have helped gasoline opposition to TC Power’s proposed Keystone XL growth. That mission would have crossed Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska, however its allow was lastly canceled in 2021 by US President Joe Biden.
US authorities knowledge reveals that the Keystone pipeline’s security report has worsened lately.
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TC Power opens section of Keystone pipeline as oil spill cleanup continues
A report launched final yr from the US Authorities Accountability Workplace (GOA), a congressional watchdog company, mentioned Keystone’s accident historical past since 2010 has been much like different crude oil pipelines, however the severity of spills has worsened lately.
The GOA report recognized “constructional points” resulting in materials rupture of pipe or welding materials as a number one consider earlier Keystone accidents.
It mentioned the 2017 Keystone leak was brought on by issues within the development, set up or manufacturing of the pipeline, whereas the 2019 North Dakota accident was brought on by defects within the authentic pipe manufacturing.
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