Safety Issues Surrounding Alberta’s Pipelines

When US President Joe Biden cancelled the Alberta Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office, he put the safety records of Canada’s oil pipelines under scrutiny. Every day, Canada exports around three million barrels of oil to the US. Most of it comes from Alberta, home to the oil sands industry. Industry experts say that oil sands oil is a particularly dangerous liquid when pipelines transport it.¹

Canada is the world’s fourth-largest producer of oil by volume.² But, Canadian oil is unlike the oil found in the Middle East. It is a particularly thick, sludge-like mixture of sand, clay, water and bitumen. Refineries extract and process the bitumen, which is still thicker than conventional light oils.³

Do Alberta’s pipelines have more safety incidences?

Canada is the largest source of US energy imports.⁴ The pipelines carrying Alberta’s oil sands are particularly at risk of spills and corrosion, say critics. This is because they carry a highly corrosive and acidic blend of diluted bitumen and volatile natural gas liquid condensate.

Even worse, any spills that occur are harder to clean up because of the nature of the oil sands product, say critics. As a result, it can damage waterways, aquifers and entire ecosystems. A 2011 report found that Alberta’s oil pipelines experience 16 times more safety incidents than American pipelines due to internal corrosion.⁵

Photo by James Wheeler from Pexels

Alberta’s Keystone pipeline leaks

In October 2019, the Canadian oil pipeline, Keystone, spilt nearly 400,000 gallons of oil in the US state of North Dakota, flooding a wetlands ecosystem.⁶ This wasn’t the first time that a pipeline from Alberta was the cause of such environmental damage.

The Keystone pipeline became operational in 2010. It was billed as one of the safest pipelines ever built. However, it had 35 oil spills in its first year alone, across the US and Canada.⁷ The spill in October 2019 was the second major incident in two years. In 2017, the pipeline spewed 407,000 gallons of Canadian crude oil in North Dakota too.⁸

Environmentalists have been documenting Keystone’s oil spills to encourage lawmakers to take the matter seriously.⁹‌ The pipeline’s poor safety record was the key reason that President Joe Biden decided to cancel the Alberta Keystone XL pipeline – another project by the same company – from being built in the US.

1. Wernick, A. (2019). Keystone oil spill casts doubt on the safety of proposed Keystone XL pipeline. [online] The World from PRX. Available at: https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-11-28/keystone-oil-spill-casts-doubt-safety-proposed-keystone-xl-pipeline.
2. Eia.gov. (2021). What countries are the top producers and consumers of oil? – FAQ – U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). [online] Available at: https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=709&t=6.
3. Union of Concerned Scientists. (2016). What Are Tar Sands? [online] Available at: https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/what-are-tar-sands.
4. www.eia.gov. (2020). Canada is the largest source of U.S. energy imports – Today in Energy – U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). [online] Available at: https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=43995.
5. McGowan, E. (2011). Pipeline Corrosion and Safety Issues Take Spotlight in Keystone XL Debate. Reuters. [online] 18 Feb. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/article/idUS210128577720110218 [Accessed 31 May 2021].
6. Rueb, E.S. and Chokshi, N. (2019). Keystone Pipeline Leaks 383,000 Gallons of Oil in North Dakota (Published 2019). The New York Times. [online] 31 Oct. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/31/us/keystone-pipeline-leak.html.
7. Wernick, A. (2019). Keystone oil spill casts doubt on the safety of proposed Keystone XL pipeline. [online] The World from PRX. Available at: https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-11-28/keystone-oil-spill-casts-doubt-safety-proposed-keystone-xl-pipeline.
8. Rueb, E.S. and Chokshi, N. (2019). Keystone Pipeline Leaks 383,000 Gallons of Oil in North Dakota (Published 2019). The New York Times. [online] 31 Oct. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/31/us/keystone-pipeline-leak.html.
9. Hefflinger, M. (2019). Keystone Pipeline Spill History. [online] Bold Nebraska. Available at: https://boldnebraska.org/keystone-pipeline-spill-history/.