Pipeline transportation occurrences in 2024

This document covers federally regulated pipelines only. Any non-federally regulated pipeline data reported to the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) are not included in this report.

The TSB gathers and uses transportation occurrence data (for both accidents and incidents)See Definitions section. during the course of its investigations to analyze safety deficiencies and identify risks in the Canadian pipeline transportation system.

This statistical summary serves to describe the accident, incident, and injury counts that are presented in the included tables. It provides limited discussion and some context but is not intended to be an in-depth analysis of the data. It should be noted that certain characteristics of the data constrain statistical analysis and identification of emerging trends. These include the small totals of accidents and incidents, the large variability in the data from year to year, and changes to regulations and definitions over time. The reader is cautioned to keep these limitations in mind when viewing this summary to avoid drawing conclusions that cannot be supported by statistical analysis.

The 2024 data were collected according to the reporting requirements described in the Transportation Safety Board Regulations in force during that calendar year.On 12 December 2018, amendments to the Transportation Safety Board Regulations were published in the Canada Gazette, Part II. The amendments were made to reorganize and update some of the pipeline occurrence reporting provisions to ensure consistency and clarity. In addition, minor discrepancies between the English and French texts were addressed.

The statistics presented here reflect the TSB Pipeline Occurrence Database System (PODS) on 18 February 2025. Since the occurrence data are constantly being updated in the live database as additional information becomes available, the statistics may change slightly over time.

Also, as many occurrences are not formally investigated, information regarding some of the reported occurrences recorded in the database may not have been verified by the TSB. 

The pipeline system

In the federally regulated pipeline system in 2024, 100 companies transported either oil or gas, or both, through approximately 20 300 km of oil pipelines and approximately 48 000 km of gas pipelines. A further 100 km of pipelines carried other commodities and substances. Altogether, this represents approximately 19.6 exajoules (EJ) of energy content transported.The size of the federally regulated pipeline system, the number of companies, and the volumes of product transported were provided by the Canada Energy Regulator (CER). Until 2019, the CER was known as the “National Energy Board,” and the TSB Regulations still refer to the agency by its former name.

Pipeline transportation occurrences

In 2024, 63 pipeline transportation occurrences were reported to the TSB (Table 1 and Figure 1); one of the occurrences was classified as an accident, while 62 were incidents.See the Definitions section. This total is less than the 68 occurrences recorded in 2022 and 2023; it is also well below the average number of occurrences for the previous 10 years (94.5 occurrences per year). Fluctuations to the reported numbers over this period may have resulted from various factors, including changes to regulations and definitions. The one accident reported in 2024 is close to the average for the previous 10 years (1.3 accidents per year).

In 2024, there were no serious injuries or fatalities arising directly from the operation of a federally regulated pipeline, as has been the case each year since 2017. Indeed, there have been no fatal accidents on a federally regulated pipeline system directly resulting from the operation of a pipeline since the inception of the TSB in 1990.

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Release of product

Of the 63 occurrences in 2024, 13 involved a release of product (Table 5). This was the lowest number of such occurrences ever reported to the TSB, below the 17 occurrences reported in 2023, which was the previous low. Figure 2 shows the products released in these occurrences. In 8 occurrences, hydrocarbon gas was released: natural gas (rather than sour gas) in each case. Low vapour pressure (LVP) hydrocarbons were released in 3 occurrences: crude oil in each case. The remaining 2 occurrences resulted in the release of a liquid other than hydrocarbons, namely pulp process water (in all cases); no such occurrences had been reported in 2023, but similar occurrences were reported each year in 2020-2022. In 2024, 50 occurrences did not involve a release of product, slightly below the average number of occurrences without release over the previous 10 years (52).

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Events other than product release

In 2024, 20 occurrences (all of them incidents) involved “geotechnical, hydrotechnical or environmental activity,” for example, slope movements or river erosion that exposed a length of pipe (Table 1 and Figure 3). This was above the 15 such incidents reported in 2023 and slightly above the average of 19 incidents reported per year between 2014 and 2023.

There were 11 incidents of pipelines being contacted by an object in 2024. This was fewer than the number reported in 2023 (17), but slightly above the average of 10 such incidents per year during the previous 10 years. The “operation beyond limits” was reported in 9 occurrences, above the number of such occurrences reported the previous year (6), but well below the average of 13 occurrences of this type per year, between 2014 and 2023.

In 2024, 6 occurrences were reported involving fire, of which one was an accident. The total number of occurrences involving fire was the lowest since 2020 (5), and was somewhat less than the average of the previous 10 years (7). Meanwhile the number of incidents where “unauthorized third-party activity affects pipeline structural integrity” decreased to 3, below the number reported in 2023 and the average over the previous 10 years (both 4). 

Figure 3. Pipeline occurrences other than those solely categorized as “product released,” by type of event, 2014 to 2024The figure includes all types of events for pipeline transportation occurrences reported to the TSB under the Transportation Safety Board Regulations, aside from those solely categorized as “product released.” Product release is defined as an occurrence "resulting directly from the operation of a pipeline where an unintended or uncontrolled release of commodity resulted in a significant adverse effect on people or the environment." Some occurrences may be coded to multiple event types.

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Geography

The largest number of occurrences in 2024 (32 out of 63) took place in Alberta (Table 2); this is below the number reported in 2023 (36) and slightly above the average between 2014 and 2023 (31). Decreases were also reported in British Columbia (from 12 to 8 occurrences, year over year), in Saskatchewan (from 6 to 2 occurrences) and in the Northwest Territories (from 3 to 1 occurrences). Quebec had the largest increase in occurrences, from 1 in 2023 to 5 in 2024. Ontario increased from 9 to 12 occurrences between 2023 and 2024, and New Brunswick increased from 0 occurrences in 2023 to 3 in 2024.

Facilities

As in 2023, a majority of occurrences in 2024 (62%; 39 of 63) occurred at locations along a pipeline, while 38% (24 of 63) occurred at facilities (Figure 4). For comparison, across the 10-year period from 2014 to 2023, there were 434 occurrences (46%) at facilities and 501 (54%) at locations along a pipeline (Table 3). Of the 24 occurrences at facilities in 2024 (all of them incidents), 8 occurred at compressor stations, 7 at meter stations, 5 at terminals, 2 at pump stations, and 2 at receipt/delivery facilities.

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Pipeline occurrence rate

An occurrence rate of 0.9 occurrences per 1000 km of operating pipeline was calculated for 2024 based on the 64 occurrences reported and the 68 400 km of federally regulated pipelines that were operational in Canada according to the Canada Energy Regulator (CER) during the same year (Table 4 and Figure 5). This occurrence rate is similar to that reported in 2023, and below the average of 1.4 in the 10-year period from 2014 to 2023.

The occurrence rate has generally fallen from a peak of 1.9 occurrences per 1000 km of operating pipeline in 2017 to 0.9 in 2023. To test whether the change in rate was statistically significant, Kendall’s tau-b (τ_b) correlation and Sen’s estimate of slope were used to quantify the trend in accident rate. Kendall’s τ_b correlation coefficient is a nonparametric measure of the strength and direction of association that exists between two variables. Kendall’s τ_b was calculated on the 11-year series of accident rate values by year from 2014 to 2024. The downward change in accident rate by pipeline length was not statistically significant over the period (τ_b = −0.2049, p = 0.1923).

An occurrence rate can also be calculated using exajoules (EJ) of energy as a denominator (Table 4 and Figure 5). In 2024, the equivalent of 19.6 EJ of energy were transported in federally regulated pipelines. This translates to a rate of 3.2 occurrences per EJ in 2024, a figure slightly lower than the 2023 rate of 3.6 and well below the 2014 to 2023 average of 5.6 occurrences per EJ. In this case, the change in occurrence rate per EJ did show a statistically significant downward trend over the period (τ_b = −0.5274, p = 0.0010). Sen’s estimate of slope, the amount of downward rate change per year, was -0.403 occurrences per EJ per year. A graphical illustration is presented in Figure 5. 

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Data tables