Canadian corporation TC Energy on Thursday said that it had shut down Keystone Pipeline due to an oil spill into the creek of Kansas. This 4324-kilometer-long pipeline is a major conduit between Canada and US Gulf coast, with a transportation capacity of more than 600,000 barrels of crude per day.
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The company said in a release that the Keystone system was shut down at around 2 am GMT, Thursday after the alarms went off and the system pressure dropped.
The leak occurred about 20 miles south of Steele City, Nebraska, confirmed TC Energy. They revealed that they have isolated the affected part of the pipeline and deployed booms to control the oil movement. Customers and regulators have been notified about the oil leak.
“Our primary focus right now is the health and safety of onsite staff and personnel, the surrounding community, and mitigating risk to the environment through the deployment of booms downstream as we work to contain and prevent further migration of the release,” TC Energy said in a statement.
The exact volume of oil leaked has not been disclosed yet.
Two Keystone shippers said that TC Energy has not yet confirmed for how long will the pipeline remain shut, Reuters reported.
The leak has impacted oil prices in the United States, with it soaring up to 5% on Thursday morning, on the expectation of a tighter supply.
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Matt Smith, an analyst at commodity data provider Kpler, said Canadian oil normally transported by Keystone can’t be easily replaced.
“We’re seeing a pop in prices because this will impact refiners that take this crude,” Smith said.
Several other leaks have hit the Keystone system in the past year. The pipeline was shut down in October 2019 after it spilled thousands of barrels of oil in North Dakota.
Another leak occurred in 2016 in South Dakota, after which a major segment of the pipeline was shut off.
