TransCanada asks US to suspend pipeline application

AP via Washington Post ^ | November 2, 2015 | By Rob Gillies

[Brad from Tennessee]

TORONTO — The company behind the controversial Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the U.S Gulf Coast has asked the U.S. State Department to pause its review of the project.

TransCanada said Monday a suspension would be appropriate while it works with Nebraska authorities for approval of its preferred route through the state. The move comes before the Obama administration was widely expected to reject it.

For seven years, the fate of the 1,179-mile (1,900 kilometer) long pipeline has languished amid debates over climate change, the intensive process of extracting Alberta’s oil and U.S. energy security

The pipeline has long been a flashpoint in the U.S. debate over climate change. Critics oppose the concept of tapping the Alberta oil sands, saying it requires huge amounts of energy and water, increases greenhouse gas emissions.

[marron]

If we focus on the pipeline network tying the Bakken into the rest of the country, tying into the Canadian flows will be a simple task.

[Army Air Corps]

Ping.

[thackney]

You don’t understand the open season commitment requirements of a DOT regulated pipeline.

The pipeline would have to be mostly booked up with oil from the Bakken and have little excess capacity to move oil from Canada.

There are several additional pipelines already in the works to move more Bakken oil.

[marron]

Actually I do know something about it (no doubt not as much as you do...) I’ve been watching the progress of the Bakken network over the last 10 years or so. Its interesting.

Some of it started with some earlier pipelines that were moving oil from Canada into the states, coincidentally about the time Bakken started to heat up. No sooner was it built than they had to go back and string another along-side to handle the unexpected Bakken flows. There have been quite a number of pipelines added since then including lines going back into Canada.

I was briefly involved in a project to reverse flow on a line that was intended for Bakken (though that may be on hold for all I know).

And I know that the talk was to build the Keystone in reverse at one point, building the lines from Oklahoma south first, then the more northern portions. They already did that I believe, including another line that was reversed and re-purposed.

Besides my own peripheral involvement, I know people involved in a number of these lines. So while I grant I don’t know much, I know something. I don’t know the ins-and-outs of DOT, however, but I’ve seen enough lines re-purposed over the years to know that it happens.

The big thing for now is, that with the prices low, I imagine they aren’t going to be in a hurry to build anything.

You probably are in a position to know where things stand currently, so I follow your threads with interest.

cheers

[bkopto]

This pipeline is as good as dead. Trudeau will cancel it.

[The Great RJ]

When, thanks to Obama’s feckless foreign policies, the inevitable war breaks out in the Middle East and puts much of the world’s oil supply into the hands of Iran, we will regret not having our own oil supplies and the means to transport that oil. The U.S. could easily achieve oil independence, but lacks the will to do so as Obama panders to the environmentalist whackos.