Western Canadian Oil Being Booked On Flanagan South; Business As Usual, Or Keystone XL Work-Around

Platts is reporting:

Canadian light oil and natural gas producer Penn West Exploration has contracted 35,000 b/d of capacity on the planned Flanagan South Pipeline in the US and also expects to "selectively" move 5,000-7,000 b/d of crude by rail in 2013, CEO Murray Nunns said Thursday.

The pipeline shipments will start mid-2014, when Enbridge expects to complete the Flannagan project. The 600-mile, 600,000 b/d line will run from the Chicago area to Cushing, Oklahoma, where it will link to the Seaway pipeline that runs to the US Gulf Coast, a key refining center.

This could simply "business as usual," or an indication of a work-around since the Keystone XL has not been approved. The short article did not say how the western Canadian oil would get to Illinois (rail or Enbridge pipelines).