Page 6 - NorthAmOil Week 50 2022

NorthAmOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT NorthAmOil

TC Energy restarts sections of

Keystone pipeline following spill

NORTH AMERICA TC Energy has restarted operations on sections officials. The cause of the leak has not yet been
of the Keystone pipeline unaffected by the spill determined.
of 14,000 barrels in rural northern Kansas. The Keystone is considered a crucial pipeline link,
Canadian company said that it had told regula- and its closure has heightened fears of price hikes
tors and customers of its plan. and a tight oil supply, although Canadian crude
The section of the pipeline where the spill prices have been relatively steady even since the
happened remains sealed off. pipeline closure. There is plenty of spare capacity
Keystone transports 622,000 barrels per day in storage hubs in Alberta.
(bpd) of crude from the oil sands of Alberta to There had been fears that a continued halt
US refineries. to the pipeline flow could push Canadian crude
“Today we restarted a section of the Keystone prices into a deeper discount compared to West
pipeline, facilitating the safe transportation of Texas Intermediate (WTI), ING had noted.
energy that North Americans rely on,” tweeted Western Canadian Select (WCS) crude was trad-
TC Energy on December 14. “The affected seg- ing at a discount of $29 per barrel the day after
ment of the pipeline remains isolated as investi- the spill was discovered compared with $26 per
gation and recovery continue.” barrel the day before, The section of
Operations on Keystone were suspended on In trading, WCS for January delivery in Hard-
December 7. The oil leaked into Mill Creek and isty was about $29 per barrel below US crude on the pipeline
onto nearby fields in Washington County, Kan- December 13. A day later, WCS for December
sas. The incident represents the worst spill ever delivery was at $31.40 per barrel below US crude, where the spill
on the pipeline, as well as the worst in the US in traders told Reuters.
10 years. The spill occurred about 32 km south of happened
In an update on December 15, TC Energy where the pipeline diverges into two in Steele remains sealed
said that it had restarted the Keystone section City, Nebraska.
that extends from Hardisty, Alberta to Wood The PHMSA had permitted certain segments off.
River/Patoka, Illinois. As of the end of the after- of Keystone to operate at 80% of the maximum
noon on December 14, TC Energy had recov- recommended pressure, instead of the usual
ered 3,035 barrels of oil from the creek, and a 72%. The pipeline has to meet certain safety
combined 5,567 barrels of both oil and water. criteria.
“The affected segment of the Keystone pipe- “PHMSA issued the special permit with 51
line system remains safely isolated as investiga- conditions that the agency determined would
tion, recovery, repair and remediation continue offset the risks of operating the relevant Key-
to advance. This segment will not be restarted stone segments at 80% of (the maximum rec-
until it is safe to do so and when we have regu- ommended pressure) in non-high consequence
latory approval from PHMSA [the US Pipeline areas,” says the Government Accountability
and Hazardous Materials Safety Administra- Office in a report. “PHMSA did not allow TC
tion],” said the company. Energy to fully operate Keystone at this higher
The clean-up will take weeks, according to stress level until 2017,” the report added.™

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 50 15•December•2022