The Keystone pipeline, which stretches 1,210 miles from Canada into the U.S., has been shut down following a loud ‘bang’ that led to an oil leak.
At approximately 8:44 AM ET, an employee working at a pumping station in North Dakota heard the noise, according to Bill Suess, program manager for the department’s spill investigation team. Upon investigating, the employee discovered oil seeping into an agricultural field around 300 yards south of the station and quickly took action to shut down the pipeline.
The exact amount of oil released is still unclear, but the pipeline was halted within two minutes. Officials anticipate the shutdown will last until Wednesday.
No individuals or structures were affected by the spill. A nearby seasonal stream, which only flows part of the year, was not impacted but was cordoned off as a precaution, Suess said.
While the flow rate of the 30-inch pipeline at the time of the leak remains unknown, Suess noted that it is expected to be a “fairly good volume” of oil, though he emphasized that there have been much larger spills in the past, including a significant incident in Walsh County, North Dakota, several years ago.
“I don’t think this will be as large as those past incidents,” Suess stated.
The $5.2 billion Keystone Pipeline, completed in 2011, transports crude oil from Western Canada across Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and through North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri to refineries in Illinois and Oklahoma.
The pipeline moves approximately 622,000 barrels of oil per day from Canada to U.S. refineries and export hubs.
South Bow, a liquid pipelines company that has managed the Keystone pipeline since 2024, confirmed to CBS News that the affected section has been isolated.
The rupture occurred at milepost 171, near Fort Ransom.
In 2022, the Keystone pipeline saw its largest oil spill to date, releasing about 14,000 barrels (or 588,000 gallons) of oil. The spill occurred in Kansas, where oil flowed into a creek on rural pasture land in Washington County, approximately 150 miles northwest of Kansas City.
This latest spill comes amid President Donald Trump’s push to revive the Keystone XL pipeline, which was intended to carry up to 830,000 barrels of oil per day from Canada to Virginia. The $8 billion project was canceled by the Biden administration.
In February, President Trump took to TruthSocial, calling for the return of the Keystone XL pipeline, which he claimed was “viciously jettisoned” by the “incompetent” Biden administration.
“Get it built – NOW,” Trump urged. “I know they were treated very badly by Sleepy Joe Biden, but the Trump Administration is very different.”
He also remarked that the nation is “doing really well” under his leadership and that he had just come up with the idea to bring the pipeline back “today.”
Biden had pledged during his 2020 campaign to cancel the pipeline and revoked its permit shortly after taking office in 2021.
The Canadian energy company behind the project, TC Energy, officially abandoned the pipeline in 2021, and it’s unclear whether they would consider restarting the project, even with Trump’s approval.
Trump, who campaigned on a “drill, baby, drill” platform, has promised to undo all of Biden’s green energy policies on his first day in office.
Speaking to Fox in February, Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated: “He is inviting them back. We want the Keystone XL pipeline built.”
Leavitt also highlighted the high utility costs in New England, Trump’s home region, adding, “He wants the pipeline built in the northeast, where we have some of the highest electricity and utility bills in the country.”