Keystone Oil Sands Pipeline

Oil sands glass is half full after Keystone XL southern stretch ok'd

In a move that should go a long away to relieve the oil glut in the US Midwest – the pricing point for US crude – TransCanada said on Monday it is going ahead with construction of the $2.3 billion southern leg of the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Cushing Oklahoma to the US Gulf Coast.

The Sinopec File

Pollution, bribes, more. Nikiforuk pries open the record of China's oil giant, business partner for Northern Gateway pipeline, The Tyee reports.

The pipeline vs the farm: Keystone XL dealt setback

Could one family farm stop a multi-billion-dollar pipeline project from going ahead? Probably not, but a Texas family farm will at least have its day in court.

Keystone XL is the comeback kid

Republicans in the US Congress are once again attempting to force through the approval of the Keystone XL project, while the pipeline's backers TransCanada says it could receive approval early in 2013.

Government plays down oil sands document

The federal government disassociated itself on Thursday from an embarrassing official policy paper that said the country’s independent energy regulator, now studying a controversial oil pipeline, is in fact a government ally.

No Keystone XL means Canadian crude will stay dirt cheap

Caving to pressure from environmental groups, the Obama administration on Wednesday rejected the $7 billion-plus Keystone XL pipeline which would have carried 700,000 barrels of crude oil a day from the Alberta oil sands to refineries along the US Gulf coast. The lack of pipelines like Keystone has meant that Canadian crude sells for much cheaper than global oil – on Wednesday the discount widened to over $30.

Keystone XL decision coming today, U.S. media reports say

The U.S. State Department is set to announce Wednesday whether it will approve TransCanada's controversial Keystone XL pipeline extension, U.S. media are reporting.

Keystone decision sets environmental bar for Canada

Canada must follow the lead of U.S. President Barack Obama and reject the proposed Enbridge pipeline in favour of economic alternatives that protect communities and slow global warming, Sierra Club BC Executive Director George Heyman said today.

Keystone XL oil sands myths and half-truths

What do you really know about the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline? The one that would bring a certain type of oil, called oil sands or tar sands, from Canada to the United States?

Two-month tax decision pushes Keystone ‘to the brink’

TransCanada Corp.’s (TRP-T44.100.050.11%) controversial Keystone XL pipeline faces a growing risk of rejection after U.S. congressional leaders reached a deal late Thursday for a vote on a payroll tax bill that would force President Barack Obama to make a quick decision about the pipeline’s fate.

U.S. House set to kill Keystone-linked bill

First cracks in Northern Gateway opposition as BC First Nation backs $5.5 billion pipeline

CBC News reports a British Columbia First Nation has announced it's backing the Northern Gateway pipeline project to ship oil sands crude to the West Coast, despite fierce opposition from dozens of other groups in the area.

NDP searches for the right message on the oilsands

The federal NDP is trying to find its footing on the oilsands issue. Lacking clear leadership, the party is starting to split on whether oilsands projects like the Keystone pipeline should be developed or scuttled, as columnist Barbara Yaffe writes.

Warburg Pincus sees oil sands opportunity

Warburg Pincus LLC, one of the world’s oldest and largest private equity firms, wants to do more deals in Canada’s oil sands.

In a rare interview, Charles (Chip) Kaye, co-president of the New York-based firm, said he thinks the U.S. government’s decision to postpone approval of TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL pipeline was shortsighted. And it will in no way diminish Warburg Pincus’s appetite for oil sands investments.

Nebraska votes to reroute pipeline

Nebraska legislators have voted unanimously to reroute the Keystone XL pipeline away from an ecologically sensitive region and the governor has signed new bills into law. The legislation is to pay for new environmental studies on the exact route the rerouted pipeline will take.

The state and the proponent of the project, Canadian company TransCanada Corp. (TSE:TRP), agreed earlier this month to reroute the $7 billion project away from the Ogallala aquifer, a sprawling water table that provides water to cities and for irrigating farms. The new path would involve about 50 kilometres of pipeline.

The company had long resisted changing the route, having already spent some $1.4 billion securing right of ways and stockpiling material for the project, which would deliver 700,000 barrels of crude oil a day from the Alberta oilsands to Texas refineries.

The un-Keystone pipeline deal just handed oil sands producers $90/barrel

The price of US crude oil broke through the psychologically important $100/barrel level on Wednesday after news of a pipeline deal that will relieve the oil glut in Cushing, Oklahoma, the pricing point for US crude. The US benchmark crude price West Texas Intermediate is now up more than a third from year-lows of $76 struck in early October.

On top of the almost 3% move higher to $102 on Wednesday, the gap between WTI and the international benchmark price, Brent, reduced dramatically. From a record margin of $26.87 early September, WTI is now less than $10 cheaper. At the same time the discount on Western Canada Select narrowed 55 cents to $11.40/barrel meaning oil sands producers now get more than $90 per barrel for their heavy oil for the first time since June.

TransCanada, Nebraska agree to reroute pipeline away from sensitive aquifer

TransCanada Corp. (TSE:TRP), the company behind the $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline project, has reached a deal with the state of Nebraska to reroute the proposed pipeline around an environmentally sensitive aquifer.

The decision was announced late Monday at a news conference from the Nebraska state legislature.

A bill was earlier introduced that would divert the pipeline away from the ecologically sensitive Sandhills area.

Under the deal reached today, and to be voted on Tuesday, the state will pay for studies to find a new route to avoid the Ogallala aquifer which provides water for millions of people in the area.

US Keystone rebuff turns Canada's attention to Northern Gateway pipeline

Reuters reports the US move to put off a decision on TransCanada Corp's proposed $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline for 18 months is a significant blow for Ottawa, which has strongly backed the project.

The Canadian government and the Alberta oil industry will now turn their attention to the 1,170km Northern Gateway pipeline project from Alberta to a new marine terminal in northern British Columbia to serve Asian markets. But the $5.5 billion project which has significant Chinese backing, is already almost a year behind schedule and would not go into operation in 2017 at the soonest. Even this schedule is optimistic: starting in January, an unprecedented 4,000-plus people – mostly greens – will speak for a collective 650 hours at public hearings.

New setback for Keystone XL as 'special review' of Obama conflict of interest is ordered

Just a few weeks ago analysts thought the jobs – 20,000 during the building phase alone – and economic benefits would easily outweigh environmental concerns and push the Obama administration to approve Keystone XL.

But now, after a summer of protests culminating in Sunday's 10,000 strong White House encirclement and on top of Nebraska's vow to force a rerouting, the US State Department’s inspector general on Monday ordered a "special review" of the Obama administration’s handling of Keystone XL following complaints from members of Congress that the process has been tainted by conflicts of interest.

Seinfeld's 'Elaine' becomes latest Keystone crusader

If you thought it had slipped onto the backburner, you'd be wrong.

The Keystone XL pipeline is back in the news, this time courtesy of prime time TV actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus, better known as Jerry Seinfeld's witty ex-girlfriend in the '90s blockbuster sitcom.

Louis-Dreyfus is the latest Hollywood star to go public against TransCanada's $7-billion project to transport Canadian oilsands crude from nothern Alberta to Texas refineries. Her appearance this week in a Youtube video by environmental group Tar Sands Action follows similar public appearances by Daryl Hannah, Robert Redford, Mark Ruffalo and other celebrity activists.

Obama to have final say on Keystone

President Obama will have the final say on whether the Keystone XL gets built.

In an interview with the Nebraska news station, Obama said that the State Department will be giving him a report "over the next several months", which he will use to make a decision.

"The state department is in charge of analyzing this, because there is a pipeline coming in from Canada. They'll be giving me a report over the next several months. My general attitude is what is best for the American economy and what is best for the American people short term and long term," said Obama to KETV NewsWatch 7's Rob McCartney.

Keystone XL: Green donors have Obama over a barrel

The UK's Telegraph reports two hundred wealthy Democrats were paying $5,000 a head this week to have lunch with Barack Obama – up to $7,500 if they also wanted their pictures taken with him – at San Francisco's posh W Hotel. Outside it was very different – some of the party's biggest donors were protesting.

There is increasing bitterness on the left about Obama's perceived closeness to industry and what they see as his failure to honour environmental promises. Like the San Francisco protesters many former campaign donors are now threatening to withdraw financial support if he fails to block the Keystone XL oil pipeline and putting off the decision – hinted at by the US State Department this week – should not come as a surprise to anyone following Obama's poll numbers..

When Keystone XL is built the biggest losers will not be the Greens, it will be Big Oil

Keystone XL should bring Canadian crude, which at the moment sells at a $30 discount, in line with global prices. At the same time a huge slice of the record profits announced this week by Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil will we wiped out. Here's why.

Obama puts off Keystone decision. Quelle surprise.

The US state department's anonymous leak to the media on Tuesday lowering expectations about a decision on Keystone this year should not come as a surprise to anyone following Barack Obama's poll numbers or the increasing bitterness on the left about his perceived closeness to industry.

State dept official: we probably won't make Keystone decision this year

On top of a 3.3% decline in US crude oil prices on Wednesday comes news from Reuters that a US State Department official said the year-end target to approve the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline could well be missed. It would be the second time a decision has been pushed out.

A surge in inventories at the Cushing hub in the Midwest, the pricing point for US crude was behind the fall and a further delay to Keystone, designed to carry Canadian crude to Texas refineries and relieve the Cushing glut, will hit oil sands producers particularly hard. Canada's heavy oil already sells at almost a $30 discount to the international price.