TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — An oil spill in a creek in northeastern Kansas shut down a major pipeline that carries oil from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast, briefly causing oil prices to rise on Thursday.
Canada-based TC Energy said it shut down its Keystone system Wednesday night following a drop in pipeline pressure. It said oil spilled into a creek in Washington County, Kansas, about 150 miles (241 kilometers) northwest of Kansas City.
There was a brief surge in oil prices midday Thursday as word of the spill began to spread, with the cost for a barrel of oil for near-term contracts rising by nearly 5%, and above the cost of oil contracts further into the future. That typically suggests there is anxiety in the market over immediate supply.
The company said in a news release that the pipeline segment where the spill occurred had been “isolated” and that the company was using booms, or barriers, to keep the spilled oil from moving downstream. It didn't say how much oil was spilled or what caused the spill.
Randy Hubbard, the Washington County Emergency Management coordinator, said there had been no evacuations because the break happened in a rural area in the middle of a pasture. He didn’t know the name of the creek or what body of water it flows into.
He said the pipeline operator hasn’t disclosed how much oil was discharged and that it could take a day and a half to get that data.
He said he hadn’t been to the site but is supporting investigators with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and and Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
The Kansas department's spokesman, Matt Lara, said it was sending a team to the site but had no information. The EPA didn't immediately respond to a request for comment and officials with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration didn’t immediately respond to questions about the oil spill Thursday.
“Everyone is in their fact-finding process,” Hubbard said.
