Cleanup Of TransCanada Keystone Oil Spill To Last Several Weeks

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South Dakota’s environmental regulator has revealed that the cleanup process for the recent 5,000 barrel oil spill along TransCanada Corp’s Keystone pipeline will probably take several weeks — with the timeline for the restarting of pipeline operation as of right now being up in the air.

For those who haven’t heard — last week, some 5,000 barrels of oil being transported from Alberta’s oil sands via the Keystone pipeline spilled in rural northeastern South Dakota. Coincidentally, the oil spill occurred just 4 days before the Keystone XL project was effectively granted approval in Nebraska — not that the spill affected the vote in that state in anyway, apparently.

“We expect it to take several weeks. Our focus is making sure they do that clean-up in accordance with our regulations,” commented Brian Walsh, environmental scientist manager for the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Reuters provides more: “TransCanada has so far recovered 571 barrels of oil, a spokesman said. ‘Repair plans will be confirmed once we are able to safely expose the impacted section of pipe,’ he said, adding that the company is working with the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) on a return to service date for the 590,000 barrel per day pipeline.

“Refiner Phillips 66, which sources some of its crude from the line, told staff that the pipeline could be shut for as long as four weeks after preliminary indications, according to Energy News Today. US crude prices remained near a two-year high at $58 after sources said the Keystone pipeline will cut deliveries by 85% or more through the end of November. That would effectively reduce shipments by around 7 million barrels of crude, traders say.”

As it stands, the US currently imports over 3 million barrels of oil a day from Canada — with a large portion coming from the expensive-to-extract tar sands, making the US the top importer of the product.

Happy Thanksgiving weekend to those in the US reading this…


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James Ayre

James Ayre's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy.

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