Keystone pipeline to restart operations on Tuesday

The Keystone pipeline will return to service on Tuesday, operators announced, nearly two weeks after spilling about 5,000 barrels of oil in rural South Dakota.

Keystone operator TransCanada said the pipeline will operate at reduced pressure “to ensure a safe and gradual increase in the volume of crude oil moving through the system.”

The company said federal pipeline safety regulators had signed off on plans for a “safe and controlled return to service.”

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Keystone leaked 5,000 barrels of oil, or about 210,000 gallons, on Nov. 16, causing a section of the 2,147-mile pipeline to go offline. Keystone transports oil from Alberta, Canada, to refineries in Texas.

The leak — the third to affect Keystone since it entered service in 2010 — came days before Nebraska regulators approved a permit allowing TransCanada to expand its pipeline system. The company is looking to develop the Keystone XL pipeline, which would deliver oil from Canada to the existing pipeline in Nebraska.

That project still needs to clear legal and regulatory hurdles.

TransCanada said on Friday that it had cleaned up some 44,000 gallons of the oil spilled from Keystone in Marshall County, South Dakota.