Preliminary findings show a fatigue crack caused a Keystone Pipeline oil spill in North Dakota

BISMARCK N D AP A fatigue crack in the Keystone Pipeline led to an oil spill in North Dakota earlier this year that circulated thousands of barrels of oil onto farmland according to the pipeline operator In a quarterly account distributed Thursday South Bow disclosed initial findings show the failure resulted from a fatigue crack that originated along the pipe s manufactured long-seam weld A fatigue crack develops from stress over time A mechanical and metallurgical analysis located the pipe and welds met industry standards the company noted Spill-related costs total around million which the company commented it expects to recover through insurance early next year Through September South Bow had received about million in reimbursements from its insurance policies The U S Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration ordered several corrective actions after the spill The federal governing body shutdown delayed the release of a third-party root cause analysis South Bow mentioned It s unclear when those findings will come A South Bow spokesperson reported PHMSA is leading that process and out of respect for the process we can t speak for them The spill occurred April An employee at the rural site about miles southwest of Fargo heard a mechanical bang and shut down the pipeline within two minutes a state official has disclosed An estimated barrels or gallons of oil spilled in a field near Fort Ransom a small town in a forested area with outdoor recreation and scenic views South Bow sent vacuum trucks and more than workers to aid the cleanup The pipeline restarted after a six-day shutdown State regulators inspected the site several times in the months after the spill noting in September that the vegetation is recovering well and that it should be checked again in spring according to an episode account Nearly of the spilled oil was recovered according to the assessment Crews removed impacted soil to be disposed of elsewhere Local landowner Myron Hammer reported South Bow s cleanup was completed in time for him to plant a soybean crop on the land I m surprised that they got everything put back in place as quick as they did It was a big project he mentioned Roughly acres of land were impacted by the spill though South Bow utilized acres or more for the entire staging area and access Hammer declared People and vehicles were on site as of late as Thursday he noted The area of the spill is in gently rolling farmland The company commented it has conducted numerous remedial evaluations of the pipeline and determined no injurious issues so far with more in-line inspections and integrity digs to come The nearly -mile kilometers Keystone Pipeline transports crude oil from Alberta Canada to refineries in Illinois Oklahoma and Texas The pipeline moved an average barrels per day from January through September of this year South Bow noted Source