Canadian firm TC Energy reopens most of Keystone pipeline following oil spill in Kansas, US

The 7 December spill forced the company to shut down the Keystone system and dumped about 14,000 barrels of heavy crude oil into a northeastern Kansas creek running through rural pastureland in Washington County Topeka: The operator of a pipeline with the largest onshore crude oil spill in nine years occurred has reopened all of it except for the stretch in Kansas and northern Oklahoma that includes the site of the rupture. The Dec. 7 spill forced the company to shut down the Keystone system and dumped about 14,000 barrels of heavy crude oil into a northeastern Kansas creek running through rural pastureland in Washington County, about 150 miles northwest of Kansas City. “This segment will not be restarted until it is safe to do so.” Last week’s spill was the largest on the 2,700-mile Keystone system since it began operating in 2010 and the largest onshore spill since a Tesoro Corp. pipeline rupture in North Dakota leaked 20,600 barrels in September 2013, according to U.S. Department of Transportation data. Concerns that spills could pollute waterways spurred opposition to plans by TC Energy to build another crude oil pipeline in the same system, the 1,200-mile Keystone XL, across Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska.