TransCanada Oil Operations Inc. resumed limited operations of a 43.1-mile segment of its Keystone Mainline No. 2 crude oil pipeline near Freeman, SD, on Apr. 10 after shutting it down when a leak was detected on Apr. 2.
The TransCanada Corp. subsidiary did so after receiving permission from the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, which issued a corrective action order (CAO) on Apr. 9 in connection with the incident.
“The restart comes after around-the-clock operations and excavation identified a small leak approximately 4 miles from the Freeman pump station,” a spokesman said on Apr. 10. “As previously mentioned, onsite specialists and regulators have not observed any significant environmental impact.”
The line is part of a 2,639-mile system running from Hardisty, Alta., to Patoka, Ill., and Port Arthur, Tex.
The CAO said that the 400-bbl leak’s cause was initially identified on Apr. 7 as a girth weld anomaly at the bottom of a transition weld. The specific section of the 30-in. diameter pipeline that failed was installed in 2009.
Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].
