FACTBOX-A year of Canadian oil pipeline ruptures

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Tue May 10, 2011 6:01pm EDT

May 10 (Reuters) - TransCanada Corp (TRP.TO) said it expects to restart its Keystone oil line this weekend following a spill, the latest in a series of pipeline incidents that have raised questions about the industry's safety. [ID:nN1087921]

Here is a list of ruptures over the past year on pipelines that carry Canadian crude.

2011

May 7 - TransCanada's 591,000 barrel a day Keystone pipeline is shut after a 500 barrel spill in North Dakota. The company blames a failed fitting at a pump station. The line, which started up in 2010, carries growing volumes of oil sands-derived crude to the U.S. Midwest and the key Cushing, Oklahoma, oil hub from Alberta.

April 29 - Plains All American Pipeline LP's (PAA.N) Rainbow pipeline ruptures in northern Alberta, sending 28,000 barrels of light sweet crude into a wilderness area near a native community. The company blames poorly compacted soil for the line break, which causes the largest oil spill in Alberta in nearly four decades. The damaged section of the 187,000 line is repaired but has yet to restart.

April 22 - Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (KMP.N) shuts its 300,000 bpd Trans Mountain pipeline after discovering an oil seep in a farmer's field west of Edmonton, Alberta. The line, which runs to the Vancouver area from Alberta, restarts five days later at 80 percent of its normal operating pressure.

2010

Sept. 9 - Enbridge Inc (ENB.TO) closes its 670,000 bpd Line 6A, which feeds U.S. Midwest refineries and Cushing after 6,100 barrels of crude leak near Romeoville, Illinois. The line restarts more than a week later with no pressure restrictions imposed by regulators.

July 26 - Enbridge shuts its 290,000 bpd Line 6B, which runs to Sarnia, Ontario, from Griffith, Indiana, after 20,500 barrels of heavy Canadian crude gush from a rupture near Marshall, Michigan. The incident prompts a massive cleanup effort that includes the company buying homes of some residents affected by the spill. Line 6B restarts nine weeks later, under pressure restrictions, after the company agrees to an intense regimen of testing and repairs to its system. (Reporting by Jeffrey Jones; Editing by David Gregorio)

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