Enbridge Inc. has shut down a crude oil pipeline near a Buffalo, N.Y., suburb to investigate a small leak, a company spokesman said Monday.

"As an abundance of caution, we have shut our Line 10 down running from Westover, Ont., to Kiantone, N.Y., as we investigate the potential for a very low-volume leak," company spokesman Glenn Herchak told CBC News.

"The amount was picked up with an absorbent pad," he said, adding the company had "notified the appropriate regulatory authorities."

An Enbridge team was already there investigating a portion of the 146-kilometre line, which transports about 70,000 barrels of crude oil a day, Herchak said, adding another utility had been performing construction work in the area.

The report comes on the heels of two other spills.

Enbridge said last Thursday a leak had been detected in a pipeline running through the community of Romeoville, Ill., southwest of Chicago. The pipeline was shut down within minutes. About 6,100 barrels of crude oil leaked and 6,050 of that have been recovered, Herchak said.

In July, the company said a pipeline in Michigan had leaked 19,500 barrels of crude, roughly 3.1 million litres. But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said the amount could be as high as 3.8 million litres.

Enbridge was heavily criticized for that leak, which seeped into a creek that feeds the Kalamazoo River.

With files from The Associated Press