OAN Staff James Meyers
1:42 PM – Thursday, April 10, 2025
Cleanup efforts have begun after close to 3,500 barrels of crude oil spilled into an agricultural field in North Dakota after a Keystone pipeline employee heard a “mechanical bang” from the System on Tuesday morning — according to a statement by managing company South Bow.
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The company said that over 200 people have now been sent to the site to help in the recovery efforts. A damaged area of the pipeline remains isolated.
As of Thursday, 700 barrels of oil, or close to 20% of the amount spilled, had been recovered, according to the company, noting that the system remained shut down.
Meanwhile, the cause of the spill is still currently unknown. The company is still investigating what caused the spill and how long repairs could possibly take, according to spokesperson Kristin Anderson.
The estimated volume of 3,500 barrels, or 147,000 gallons of crude oil, is equal to 16 tanker trucks of oil, said Paul Blackburn, a policy analyst with Bold Alliance. That estimate could increase over time, he added.
South Bow said on Thursday that “continuous air quality monitoring has shown no indication of adverse health or public concerns currently,” and that personnel are conducting “around the clock air and environment monitoring.”
The company is now working with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Association and the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality — as the cleanup efforts continue.
An investigation into what caused the spill is also underway, South Bow reiterated.
“We have not established a timeline for restart and will only resume service with regulator approvals,” South Bow said. “Our primary focus remains on the safety of onsite personnel and mitigating risk to the environment.”
The Keystone Pipeline went into effect in 2011. It runs through North Carolina, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri. The crude oil it carries goes to refineries in Oklahoma and Illinois.
A proposed extension that would have brought crude oil to the Gulf Coast was shut down in 2021 after years of protests by environmental groups.
The pipeline has had three major spills take place since 2017. The largest was in 2022, when 14,000 barrels of crude oil spilled into a creek in Kansas.
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