Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Wow, Wow, Wow -- Keystone XL Pushed Back to 2015 --

"to be approved eventually"

Link to Rigzone.com here.
TransCanada Corp.'s schedule for the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline slipped further Tuesday, as the Calgary pipeline company said it now expects a start-up date in early 2015 rather than its previous expectation of 2014.

Earlier this year, the Obama Administration refused to grant the line a permit to cross the U.S. border, though the White House invited TransCanada to apply again. TransCanada executives say they still expect the line - envisioned to transport crude from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast - to be approved eventually.
This tells me that TransCanada -- for all their "threats" -- really does not have a viable plan for pipelining that oil to the west coast. 

It also tells me that if they are willing to wait this long, this project is a company-defining project.

4 comments:

  1. I think getting approval to build a port on the west coast would be very difficult even in Canada.

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    Replies
    1. Even if it was easy, three other issues:

      a) huge cost. Huge.
      b) huge project. Many years to complete.
      c) no "Texas" refineries. Canada wanted that oil to go where there were existing refineries. Top dollar when delivered directly to refinery. Knock off a few dollars/bbl to ship it to China.

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  2. The Keystone project needs to be done in several phases. The Cushing, OK to the Gulf, then putting it in the states that have a defined and approved route. Hard to see why this is not already being done. It seems like all parties involved want to do is use it as a political football rather than getting this very important project completed.

    Meanwhile in stupid is as Minnesota does:

    http://www.winonadailynews.com/news/local/article_75803364-56ca-11e1-b82b-0019bb2963f4.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've wondered the same thing: why this wasn't done in stages? Something tells me TransCanada was worried they could have a huge white elephant on their hands: a huge pipeline that has a 2-mile gap -- across the border that never gets approved.

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