South Bow contains Keystone Pipeline oil leak
South Bow Corp., Calgary, has isolated and contained an oil release on the Keystone Pipeline at Milepost 171 (MP-171), near Fort Ransom, ND.
The pipeline system remains shut down as crews respond and recover the oil, the company said in an Apr. 9 update. The estimated release volume is 3,500 bbl.
The response comes following control center leak detection systems detected a pressure drop at 7:42 a.m. CT on Apr. 8, 2025. The system was shut down minutes later at 7:44 a.m., the company said.
The operator said that upon activating emergency response procedures, it established around-the-clock air and environment monitoring and that its response efforts focus on remediating the site.
The North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality (NDDEQ) was notified of the malfunction in the line that day.
NDDEQ noted Apr. 8 that the release was at the time confined to an agricultural field south of the associated pump station and that a stream near the site was unaffected.
South Bow said it would continue to provide timely updates as information becomes available.
Keystone Pipeline
The 4,327-km Keystone system carries crude oil from Hardisty, Alta., to refiners in the US Midwest and Gulf Coast. It splits at Steele City, Neb., with one branch running east through Kansas and Missouri to delivery points at Wood River and Patoka, Ill., and the other south to delivery points at Cushing, Okla., and Houston and Port Arthur, Tex.
In December 2022, TransCanada Pipelines Ltd., an affiliate of then Keystone operator TC Energy Corp., shut down part of the Keystone pipeline system following an oil release in Washington County, Kan. (the Milepost 14 incident) (OGJ Online, Dec. 8, 2022).
In March 2025, South Bow, after its spinoff from TC Energy in October, received approval from PHMSA to lift the pressure restriction on the affected segment to 72% of the specified minimum yield strength of the pipeline, the company said as part of its fourth-quarter 2024 report. The affected segment includes the section of the pipeline where the Milepost 14 incident occurred.
The company recorded annual average throughput on the Keystone Pipeline of about 626,000 b/d in 2024, an increase of 5% relative to 2023.
Throughput on the US Gulf Coast segment of the Keystone Pipeline System in 2024 averaged about 795,000 b/d, increasing by 15% relative to 2023.
Fourth-quarter 2024 throughput on the Keystone Pipeline and the US Gulf Coast segment of the Keystone Pipeline System averaged about 621,000 b/d and about 784,000 b/d, respectively.
Mikaila Adams | Managing Editor - News
Mikaila Adams has 20 years of experience as an editor, most of which has been centered on the oil and gas industry. She enjoyed 12 years focused on the business/finance side of the industry as an editor for Oil & Gas Journal's sister publication, Oil & Gas Financial Journal (OGFJ). After OGFJ ceased publication in 2017, she joined Oil & Gas Journal and was named Managing Editor - News in 2019. She holds a degree from Texas Tech University.