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Keystone Pipeline Shut Down After Rupture in North Dakota

The Keystone oil pipeline, which spans 4,327 kilometers (2,689 miles), was taken offline on Tuesday morning due to a rupture in North Dakota, ceasing the transportation of crude oil from Canada to U.S. refineries.

Management of the pipeline, the South Bow company, indicated that the closure was prompted by leak detection systems at the control center, which identified a drop in pressure. The leak is localized to an agricultural field approximately 60 miles southwest of Fargo.

“The affected segment has been isolated, and operations and containment resources have been mobilized to the site,” the company stated. “Our primary focus at this time is the safety of onsite personnel and minimizing environmental risks.”

This segment of the Keystone pipeline consistently moved around 624,000 barrels of oil daily in 2024, as reported by Canadian regulatory bodies. The pipeline itself journeys from Alberta down to Texas.

The Keystone pipeline has been operational since 2010, allowing for the steady flow of crude oil to refineries situated along the Gulf Coast of the United States.

The cause of the pipeline rupture has not yet been established, nor is the volume of oil that has leaked into the surrounding field clear at this moment.

Incident Response and Environmental Impact

An employee on site near Fort Ransom reported hearing a “mechanical bang” and managed to shut down the pipeline within minutes of the incident, according to Bill Suess, spill investigation program manager at the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality. Emergency responders arrived as oil surfaced roughly 274 meters (300 yards) south of the pump station; however, there were no adverse effects on nearby people or structures.

A seasonal stream located nearby was sealed off as a precautionary measure, although it remained unaffected by the spill, Suess added. A team from the Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is on its way to investigate the leak’s source.

Fort Ransom is set in a picturesque, hilly, forested area of southeastern North Dakota. While the precise flow rate of the 80-centimeter (30-inch) pipeline at the time of the failure is unknown, even a brief two-minute leak could result in significant volume loss. “However, we’ve dealt with much larger spills in the past,” Suess noted, referencing a previous incident involving this same pipeline in Walsh County, ND, and indicating that this current situation may not reach that scale.

The original construction of the Keystone Pipeline in 2010 incurred costs of approximately $5.2 billion. It transports crude oil through Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba and continues through various U.S. states, including North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri, reaching refineries in Illinois, Oklahoma, and Texas.

While TC Energy was responsible for the pipeline’s initial construction, management has transitioned to South Bow as of 2024. An extension known as Keystone XL was proposed to facilitate further transportation of crude oil to Gulf Coast refineries but was ultimately halted by the company in 2021 following extensive protests from environmental advocates and Indigenous communities who raised concerns over ecological impacts.

In a related incident, almost 13,000 barrels of oil were spilled from the Keystone pipeline into a creek in Kansas in December 2022. An engineering analysis later revealed that a bend in the pipeline had been “overstressed” since its installation, which was believed to be compounded by construction activities in the vicinity. TC Energy acknowledged that a faulty weld caused a crack in the bend that worsened over time.

Source
globalnews.ca