TC Energy ( NYSE: TRP ) plans to restart one leg of its shuttered Keystone oil pipeline beginning December 10, Bloomberg reported Friday, following a 14K-barrel crude spill that ranks as one of the largest in a decade.
The company expects to initially restart flows on the segment of the line extending to Patoka, Illinois, while the leg of the pipeline that extends to the Cushing, Oklahoma, storage hub is expected to restart December 20, according to the report.
The U.S Environmental Protection Agency said it expects clean-up activities from the spill - the cause of which remains unknown - will extend into next week.
If the EPA finds TC Energy ( TRP ) liable for the spill, the company would be responsible for the cost of cleanup and repairing any harm to the environment, as well as potential civil and criminal penalties.
Analysts said the outage on the 622K bbl/day pipeline could affect inventories at the key Cushing hub and cut crude supplies to two oil refining centers; Cushing inventories are at their lowest since July and at multi-year lows seasonally.
A lengthy shutdown also could lead to bottlenecks of Canadian crude in Alberta, driving prices at the Hardisty storage hub lower, although price reaction so far was muted, according to Reuters.
Saying Keystone may be "unable to fully perform the transportation service for December," TC Energy ( TRP ) declared force majeure on Thursday .
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TC Energy plans partial Keystone pipeline restart December 10 - report