CALGARY - The Alliance Pipeline, a natural gas conduit that runs from northeastern B.C. to the Chicago area, is back in service after a six-day outage.

The pipeline was shut down last Friday because hydrogen sulphide-tainted gas mistakenly got into the system.

Natural gas processor and transporter Keyera (TSX:KEY) says an "operational upset" during maintenance at its Simonette plant in northwestern Alberta two days earlier caused the issue.

Alliance burned off the toxic gas at two locations in southeastern Saskatchewan, which it says was the safest way to dispose of it.

A number of Western Canada producers had to suspend operations while the Alliance pipeline, owned by an Enbridge affiliate (TSX:ENB) and Veresen (TSX:VSN), was out of commission.

The Alliance Pipeline carries 1.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day.