March 2009 Vol. 236 No. 3

Projects

TransCanada Begins Negotiations To Build Canada-U.S. Oil Pipeline

TransCanada Keystone Pipeline LP has submitted its Environmental Report and Appendices to the U.S. Department of State in support of its Application for a Presidential Permit to build the nearly 2,000-mile Keystone Gulf Coast Expansion Project (Keystone XL).

Keystone XL is complementary to the $5.2-billion Keystone Pipeline currently being developed by TransCanada and ConocoPhillips.
As proposed, Keystone XL is an approximately 1,980-mile, 36-inch diameter crude oil pipeline that would begin at Hardisty, Alberta and extend southeast through Saskatchewan, Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska. It would incorporate a portion of the Keystone Pipeline to be constructed through Kansas to Cushing, OK, before continuing through Oklahoma to a delivery point near existing terminals in Nederland, TX to serve the Port Arthur, TX marketplace. Also proposed is an approximately 50-mile pipeline to the Houston marketplace.

Once completed, Keystone will be operated as one integrated pipeline system which will include the proposed Keystone XL pipeline project.
The state department’s notice that it will prepare an environmental impact statement and hold public meetings about the Keystone XL pipeline was recently published in the Federal Register. Public comments and suggestions about the scope of the environmental study will be taken at 20 meetings, seven of them in Montana and the others in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota. The first meeting is scheduled for Feb. 9 in Beaumont, TX, and the last for Feb. 26 in the Montana towns of Glasgow and Malta. March 16 is the deadline for written comment.

TransCanada Keystone Pipeline has said that subsidiaries of TransCanada and ConocoPhillips would own and operate the pipeline system, and that commitments for oil shipments spanning about 18 years are in place.

Keystone XL is expected to begin service in 2012.