Keystone pipeline is frantically shut down after loud 'bang' causes leak
- READ MORE: Trump wants to revive the long-dead Keystone XL pipeline
The Keystone pipeline, spanning 1,210 miles from Canada into the US, has been shutdown in North Dakota after a loud 'bang' triggered an oil leak.
At around 8:44am ET, an employee reported hearing noise while working on one of the pipelines' pumping stations, said Bill Suess, program manager for the department's spill investigation team.
The employee then noticed oil surfacing in an agricultural field about 300 yards south of the station and proceeded to shut down the pipeline, he added.
The exact amount of oil spilled is not yet known, but it took about two minutes for the pipeline to be shut and officials expected it to be closed until Wednesday.
No people or structures were affected by the spill. A nearby stream that only flows during part of the year was not impacted but was blocked off and isolated as a precaution, Suess said.
The program manger is unsure at what rate the 30-inch pipeline was flowing when it sprung a leak, but suggested it will be 'a fairly good volume' of oil that spilled.
'But ... we've had much, much bigger spills,' including one involving the same pipeline a few years ago in Walsh County, North Dakota, he said.
'I don't think it's going to be that huge,' Suess said.
The Keystone pipeline, spanning 1,210 miles from Canada into the US, has been shutdown after a loud 'bang' was heard that was followed by an oil leak
The $5.2 billion pipeline constructed in 2011 Keystone Pipeline carries crude oil across Saskatchewan and Manitoba through North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri to refineries in Illinois and Oklahoma.
The system carries about 622,000 barrels of oil per day from Western Canada to US refineries and export hubs.
South Bow, a liquid pipelines business that has managed the pipeline since 2024, told CBS News that the affected area of the pipeline has been isolated.
The rupture occurred at milepost 171, near Fort Ransom.
The Keystone pipeline experienced its biggests oil spill in history in 2022 when it lost about 14,000 barrels, or 588,000 gallons.
The rupture in Kansas sent oil into a creek running through rural pasture land in Washington County, about 150 miles northwest of Kansas City.
Tuesday's spill comes as President Donald Trump said he wants to revive the long-dead Keystone XL pipeline, which would travel between Canada and Virginia carrying upwards of 830,000 barrels per day of oil into the US.
The $8billion infrastructure project was killed off by the Biden Administration.
The $5.2 billion pipeline constructed in 2011 Keystone Pipeline carries crude oil across Saskatchewan and Manitoba through North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri to refineries in Illinois and Oklahoma
Taking to TruthSocial in February, the president said the pipeline 'that was viciously jettisoned by the incompetent Biden Administration should come back to America.'
'Get it built - NOW,' he added. 'I know they were treated very badly by Sleepy Joe Biden, but the Trump Administration is very different.'
Trump noted that the nation is doing 'really well' under his new administration, and that he just thought up the idea to bring the pipeline back 'today.'
Biden had committed to canceling the project during his 2020 campaign and revoked the permit soon after taking office in 2021.
The Canadian energy infrastructure company behind the pipeline, TC Energy, officially abandoned the project in 2021 and it is unclear if it would be willing to pivot even with Trump's express permission.
Trump campaigned on a 'drill baby, drill' slogan and has pledged to throw out all of Biden's green energy policies on Day One.
Speaking to Fox in February, Trump's press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: 'He is inviting them back. We want the Keystone XL pipeline built.
'He wants the pipeline built in the northeast in New England where I'm from, where we have some of the highest electricity and utility bills in the country.'
