Keystone Oil Pipeline Resumes Operations After Brief Shutdown

The Keystone pipeline carrying crude from Alberta to Nebraska resumed operations late on Thursday after being put briefly offline as a precautionary measure.

The pipeline with a capacity to transport 622,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil was safely placed back into operation on Thursday, after a brief suspension of services as a precautionary measure, Keystone’s operator TC Energy said.

The pipeline is intact and no oil has been released, TC Energy confirmed.

Earlier on Thursday, the company had reportedly notified shippers of the suspension of the services, due to operational issues, an industry source told Reuters. TC Energy didn’t go into details about the operational issues, the source added.

The 2,687-mile Keystone Pipeline System plays a key role in connecting Alberta’s crude oil supplies to U.S. refining markets in Illinois, Oklahoma, and Texas, as well as connecting U.S. crude oil supplies from the Cushing, Oklahoma, hub to refining markets on the U.S. Gulf Coast through the Marketlink Pipeline System. 

The brief halt to the pipeline’s operations sent U.S. benchmark crude oil prices, WTI Crude, higher on Thursday and early on Friday, before prices pulled back after news broke about the restart of the Keystone pipeline.

“In the latest update, the company reported that the pipeline is safely operating after a brief suspension, although details on supply disruption are not available yet,” ING commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey said on Friday.

“The 622Mbbls/d oil pipeline which transports heavy Canadian crude to the US Midwest and Gulf Coast has a long history of disruptions, including a 12Mbbl spill in December 2022, leading to a two-week-long shutdown of the line,” they added.

TC Energy shut down the Keystone pipeline in early December 2022 following the detection of a leak in Nebraska. The leak was contained within several days, with the pipeline spilling a total of 14,000 barrels of crude into a creek. 

Keystone has been operating at a reduced pressure since the spillage incident.