TransCanada Mulls Bakken Opportunities -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

I think this has been referenced before, but perhaps not with such clarity.

The Cushing MarketLink is the final leg of the Keystone XL project, from Cushing, OK, to Port Arthur, TX. TransCanada says that segment cannot stand alone as a "pipeline" transporting oil at Cushing to the Gulf. It can only "work" as part of the Keystone XL. The linked article does not say why, but I bet it has to do with pumping stations.

However, it is obvious TransCanada has the easements for a pipeline from Cushing to Port Arthur, which raises the question of "why not put in a parallel pipeline to just carry Bakken light oil?"  And that is exactly what TransCanada is mulling, but they can't be more specific.

Meanwhile, they will present Keystone XL 2.1 or 3.0 to the Feds in September/October, 2012, just before the election on November 6. My hunch is that this is the timeline:

• October 30, 2012: the package is mailed to Washington, DC
• November 1, 2012: the package arrives in the mailroom at Foggy Bottom
• November 2, 2012: the package is delivered to the top floor, State Dept
• November 3 - November 5, 2012: the package remains unopened on Hillary's desk
• November 6, 2012: the package is opened early in the morning to take their minds off the election
• November 7, 2012: the Keystone XL is ..... denied once again (either out of spite for having lost the election; payback to faux-environmentalists for having won the election)

And so it goes.