Keystone Pipeline Timeline for Restart Unclear; Traders worry about the supply of Health & Fitness Journal

©Health & Fitness Journal. FILE PHOTO: A satellite image shows an overview of the crude oil spill along Mill Creek following the leak at the TC Energy operated Keystone pipeline in Washington County, Kansas, U.S. December 10, 2022. Satellite Image 2022 Maxar Technologies/Hando

By Stephanie Kelly, Laila Kearney and Rod Nickel

NEW YORK (Health & Fitness Journal) – Traders on Monday expressed concern over how long Canada’s TC Energy (NYSE:) Corp would take to clean up its Keystone oil pipeline back on line after more than 14,000 barrels of oil spilled last week were, the largest oil spill in history in nearly a decade.

TC Energy closed the pipeline after the spill was discovered in Kansas late Wednesday. The company told officials in Washington County, Kansas Monday that they have yet to determine the cause and have begun excavation around the pipeline.

TC Energy and county officials met briefly Monday to discuss efforts to contain and clean up the spill, a company official said. The meeting was “uneventful” and lasted 13 minutes, said Dan Thalmann, owner of the Washington County News.

TC Energy did not provide a timeline for the cleanup, Thalmann said. The company notified the county that it is expanding its efforts to suck oil from Mill Creek into trucks, he said.

Regulators must approve the restart of the line, which stretches to the US Gulf Coast.

The 622,000 barrels per day Keystone Line transports Canadian heavy crude from Alberta to refineries in the US Midwest and Gulf Coast. The closure is expected to hamper shipments of Canadian crude both to the US storage center in Cushing, Oklahoma, and to the Gulf, where it is processed by refiners or exported.

“The trading community is largely concerned that the pipeline is not ready,” said a US-based trader.

If the outage lasts more than 10 days, inventories in Cushing, Oklahoma could be pushed to near the operating minimum of 20 million barrels, analysts said.

Concerns over the pipeline failure that shrank shipments at Cushing, also the delivery point for West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures (WTI), helped push the US benchmark up 4% to around $73.90 in morning trade.

Prices for sour crude grades in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico rose on Monday as the shutdown means greater demand for heavier Gulf barrels. Differences in East Houston Magellan and WTI Midland Crude narrowed, keeping Cushing levels stronger and exports weaker, a trader said.

TC Energy said Sunday that more than 250 people are working on the leak, including third-party environmental specialists. The US Environmental Protection Agency and the pipeline regulator, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), are also on site. The PHMSA must determine when the line is safe for a restart.