Damaged section of Keystone pipeline to be examined following explosion

(UC) — TC Energy has securely removed the Keystone pipeline section that broke earlier this month and sent it for metallurgical testing as instructed by U.S. regulators, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

Nearly two weeks after the line exploded in the largest oil disaster in the U.S. in nine years, Reuters said on Tuesday that TC Energy Corp. had filed its plan to restart the Keystone pipeline to the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

TC Energy has until early March, or 90 days after PHMSA issued a corrective action order, to complete the analysis to determine the primary factors that contributed to the line's failure.

Last week, portions of the pipeline that transports oil from Alberta, Canada, to refineries in Illinois were made available at a reduced capacity.

Even though a cleanup will take weeks or months, once the line is fixed and the regulator approves the plan, service can resume.

Diluent bitumen, a heavy oil that tends to sink in water and is more difficult to collect than oils that float, seeped from the line. The cleanup is being carried out by more than 400 persons, including TC employees, pipeline regulators, state and municipal officials, and US EPA.

After oil leaked from the 622,000 barrel per day pipeline in a rural Kansas area, it was shut down.

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