Payback: Canadians 'Avenge' Keystone XL Loss With Takeover Of Top U.S. Crude Export Terminals -- RBN Energy -- August 15, 2023

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RBN Energy: Canadians "Avenge" Keystone XL Loss With Takeover Of Top US Crude Export Terminals. Archived.

Just a couple of years ago, TC Energy finally threw in the towel on its long-planned, long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline project, which would have substantially increased the flow of Western Canadian heavy crude to Gulf Coast refineries and export docks. It was a bitter loss. Since then, however, two other companies headquartered north of the 49th parallel have assumed leading roles in the U.S. crude oil market or, more specifically, crude exports. First, Enbridge acquired the U.S.’s #1 oil export terminal — now called the Enbridge Ingleside Energy Center (EIEC) — and related assets for US$3 billion and then, on August 1, Gibson Energy announced that it had closed on the US$1.1 billion purchase of the nearby South Texas Gateway (STG), which is #2 in crude export volumes. 

In today’s RBN blog, we discuss the increasing role of Canada-based midstream companies along the South Texas coast. Canada has a way of producing great musical talent — bands like Rush and The Guess Who and singer-songwriters like Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Shania Twain come to mind [how in the world did they miss Ian and Sylvia from Alberta? And, Anne Murray, Celine Deon, k.d. lange, Leonard Cohen] (some may also include Justin Bieber, but we won’t go there) — and the U.S. has a way of pretending that they’re really Americans, often to the chagrin of our northern neighbors. (Canadians are technically Americans, too — Canada is, after all, the largest country by area in North or South America — but we won’t go there either.) 

Our point is, sometimes it seems that Canada doesn’t get the respect it deserves, either in music or the energy industry. For example, since 1999, Canada has been the U.S.’s largest source of imported oil (edging out both Saudi Arabia and Venezuela that year), and in 2022 it supplied an astonishing 60% of total crude imports. (It’s nice to have a friendly neighbor you can rely on.) Canada also accounts for 99% of U.S. natural gas imports (more than 8 Bcf/d last year, on average) and helps out on LPGs as well (152 Mb/d in 2022).