GRAND FORKS — A structural seam defect that caused approximately 383,000 gallons of oil to spill from the Keystone Pipeline in 2019 may be the same defect that caused another North Dakota spill this past April, according to documentation from the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
A former engineer for TransCanada PipeLines Limited (TCPL), now known as TC Energy, believes it could be part of a systemic issue that may continue without proper intervention. South Bow Corporation, current operator of the entire Keystone Pipeline system, said in a statement to the Grand Forks Herald that it would be premature to comment on the cause of the recent spill, but investigations and analysis are underway.
“Operating safely is our top priority,” the statement said. “The pressure at the time of the incident was within the parameters the pipeline was designed for. Following the incident, we fully complied with PHMSA’s Corrective Action Order and obtained their approval for independent third-party investigations related to the incident to ensure our infrastructure’s integrity.”
Evan Vokes, of Calgary, Alberta, said he was employed by TC Energy from 2007 to 2012. As a welding engineer who authored and reviewed engineering documents, he claims to have been ostracized after reporting suspected wrongdoing by the company,
an issue CBC News covered in 2012.
CBC reported Vokes’ concerns included the competency of some pipeline inspectors as well as what he claimed was a lack of compliance with national welding regulations. The National Energy Board (NEB) issued a public letter in 2012 that, without naming Vokes, explained many allegations were verified by an internal audit of TransCanada, according to the article.
TransCanada provided CBC with a statement saying the concerns Vokes raised were identified and addressed through routine quality control processes well in advance of facilities going into service.
Vokes contacted the Herald after
. The RCFA was authored by RSI Pipeline Solutions, an Ohio-based consulting firm.
“I know by reading that report, as soon as they said that it was a ‘long seam defect,’ that says that defect can be systemic,” Vokes claimed.
On Oct. 29, 2019, approximately 383,000 gallons of crude oil spilled from the pipeline onto approximately five acres of wetlands outside of Edinburg, North Dakota, in Walsh County, according to previous Herald coverage.
The 183-page RCFA says Keystone Pipeline’s 2019 rupture was caused by “inadequate control” of the submerged arc welded longitudinal (SAWL) pipe’s misalignment, as well as “ineffective quality processes at the pipe mill” that allowed an off-specification pipe joint to leave the mill with a seam defect severe enough to result in a fatigue crack.
RSI’s conclusion explains there were likely not enough inspections carried out, and inspections that did occur weren’t thorough enough to identify the issue.
The report is heavily redacted. In its response to the Herald’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, PHMSA said the redactions were made to protect trade secrets as well as information that could reasonably endanger someone or their privacy. When the Herald later sought more information on the number of redactions, Senior Public Affairs Specialist Darius Kirkwood cited the same exemptions.
Vokes said he believes the document was “excessively redacted,” but because he specialized in non-destructive examination and welding, he believes he knows what has been left out. He said he suspects key details about pipe manufacturing defects, quality control failures and TC Energy’s response were obscured in the report.
A long seam rupture is a high risk, he said.
On April 8 of this year, there was another Keystone Pipeline oil spill in a field near Fort Ransom, North Dakota, which is about 40 miles south of Valley City, North Dakota,
as reported by Wendy Reuer of InForum.
Vokes said he believes there’s a high probability the defect that caused the recent spill near Fort Ransom is the same one that caused the 2019 spill, and the Corrective Action Order (CAO) PHMSA sent to South Bow days after the April spill identified the similarities.
“Visual examination of the ruptured pipe at the failure location is similar in appearance to the pipe that ruptured in Oct. 2019,” the CAO said. “Metallurgical testing of the pipe will determine if the failure mechanisms are the same.”
The CAO said the failed pipeline was previously assessed through in-line inspection (ILI), which uses ultrasonic metal loss and ultrasonic crack detection tools. The pipe was also tested hydrostatically prior to commencement of Keystone Pipeline operations in 2010. Hydrostatic testing, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, is when water is put into a pipeline at a high level of pressure for hours at a time to ensure the structure is sound.
Vokes said there was no way for ILIs to catch the rupture, which the CAO described as having “the appearance of a fish-mouth opening,” approximately 45 inches long by 8 inches wide, with the axis of the fish-mouth rupture aligning with the pipe’s longitudinal seam.
Vokes claims this is “exactly the same rupture” as the one that occurred outside Edinburg, North Dakota, in 2019.
The CAO also said the failure mechanism in the 2019 event appears to be similar to the April event. Further, it says spills in 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2022 “show a tendency or pattern in recent years of increasingly frequent incidents resulting in larger releases.”
Keystone Pipeline spills from 2016 and 2022, and their respective quantities, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
A plan was approved in 2023 to separate TC Energy into two independent, investment-grade companies, according to the South Bow statement. South Bow is one; TC Energy Corporation is another. South Bow legally separated from TC Energy, becoming a standalone critical infrastructure company, in late 2024.
“Over Keystone Pipeline System’s history, we safely delivered over five billion barrels of crude oil to meet North American energy demand,” South Bow’s statement said.
Some of the company’s recent upgrades and operational changes, according to the statement, include a third-party audit of operational and safety performance; additional pipeline integrity expertise and skills added to the team; new technologies, research and development investments to maintain the pipeline system; sharing learned best practices to peers at Liquids Energy Pipeline Association and investing approximately $150 million annually into South Bow’s pipeline integrity programs.
Following this most recent spill, South Bow initiated a comprehensive review of operations and reinspected the affected segment using advanced monitoring technologies, the statement said.
The recent CAO also identifies the affected pipe as manufactured by Berg Steel Pipe Corporation, the same manufacturer as the pipe that caused the 2019 spill. South Bow said constructing a pipeline requires extensive design, construction and operational criteria — all of which were carried out on the Keystone Pipeline.
It also said the pipeline exceeds standard pipeline requirements and, once South Bow learns the root cause of the spill, it will take the appropriate steps to further strengthen the pipe’s integrity.
“We are actively monitoring how the Keystone Pipeline System is performing to ensure safe and reliable operations,” the statement said. “No incident is ever acceptable to us, and we make sure to put our learnings into action. In the past five years, the Fort Ransom segment of Keystone has been inspected six times using state-of-the-art technologies as part of our pipeline integrity program. Additionally, we are working with third parties to ensure objective results.”
Vokes claims that failing to publicize the RCFA from the 2019 spill within a timely manner left stakeholders without the full picture necessary to make informed decisions, and may have caused spills in the years since.
“This (report) should have been posted within a very short period of time,” he said. “Because how are you supposed to be proactive about pipeline failures if you don’t post it right away?”
The recently released RCFA for the 2019 Keystone spill was dated April 1, 2020. The Herald filed a FOIA request for the report on Oct. 29, 2020, and received it in March of this year. The redacted file’s name includes the date Sept. 15, 2023.
The Herald asked PHMSA to clarify the dates, and explain the timeline for releasing the documentation. Kirkwood said the RCFA was submitted to PHMSA on April 1, 2020, and the Herald received the document after its request was processed by PHMSA’s FOIA office.
Kirkwood didn’t address the length of time it took for the request to be processed, but he did clarify the date in the file name likely only refers to when the file was saved to someone’s computer.
Vokes also asserts PHMSA should have published the documentation on its website, which has a section designated for pipeline failure investigation reports, so the public would be aware of the issue. Kirkwood said the RCFA is different from a Failure Investigation Report, which is the type of documentation PHMSA writes and publishes on its website.
Though Kirkwood said a Failure Investigation Report was produced by PHMSA after the investigation concluded, he did not explain why the report is not on the website. The website has publicized reports from at least four more recent pipeline failures, including another Keystone spill that occurred in Kansas in 2022.
South Bow said it has an
which is one of the channels it uses to share public updates. Staff also work closely with regulators, local elected officials, landowners, communities and customers, according to the statement.
“We recognize the seriousness of any incident and are committed to full transparency,” South Bow’s statement said.