By Swati Verma and Nia Williams
(Reuters) -Canada’s TC Energy on Tuesday said its 622,000 barrel-per-day Keystone oil pipeline will curtail volumes due to a series of recent severe weather-related impacts to system facilities.
The Calgary-based company said it notified customers on Monday of the force majeure event. TC did not share any details on the size or duration of the curtailment, citing customer confidential information.
“The notices informed customers that effective as of Nov. 15, the Keystone System will be required to curtail volumes due to the time the system was slowed during the force majeure event,” TC said in a statement.
Two market sources said volumes had been curtailed by 7%. One of the sources said Canadian heavy crude prices had sold off on Monday before rallying on Tuesday.
Western Canada Select heavy blend crude for December delivery settled at $28.60 a barrel below U.S. crude futures, according to NE2 Inc, having traded at $28.85 a barrel the previous day.
Keystone ships Canadian crude from Alberta to the U.S. Midwest and on to the Gulf Coast, and is a key part of Canada’s oil export network.
TC said in October it would temporarily increase capacity on its Keystone pipeline for a couple of months from November for testing operations on the system.
(Reporting by Swati Verma in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Porter, Jonathan Oatis and Deepa Babington)