Marketlink oil pipeline running at reduced rates after Keystone leak

TC Energy Corp’s Marketlink crude oil pipeline was operating at reduced rates, three sources said on Thursday, due to supply disruptions as Keystone pipeline was shut after a leak in Walsh County, North Dakota.

The Marketlink pipeline has a capacity of 750,000 barrels per day (bpd) and flows south from Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for U.S. crude futures, to Nederland, Texas.

Marketlink is connected to the 590,000-bpd Keystone oil pipeline system, a key transporter of Canadian crude from northern Alberta to refineries in the U.S. Midwest.

About 9,120 barrels of oil were estimated to have been spilled from Keystone crude pipeline in Walsh County after a leak was discovered on Tuesday night and affected a wetland area, the state regulator said.

“The initial guesses on a pipeline leak of this magnitude are 7-10 days (of repairs) which will reduce flows into Cushing by about 3-3.5 million barrels of heavy crude and some synthetic crude,” said Scott Shelton, a broker at ICAP in Durham.

Flows on the Marketlink line were decreased to near 304,000 bpd from about 620,000 bpd, market intelligence firm Genscape said late on Wednesday.

TC energy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The disruption on Marketlink pressured U.S. crude futures time spreads , that typically reflect supply and demand in Cushing, traders and brokers said.