TransCanada brings XL back to life despite speed bumps

Despite what its chief executive described as “speed bumps”, the Keystone oil-sands pipeline to Texas is already an important part of TransCanada’s plans to ship 40% of Canada’s exports to the US

On 3 May TransCanada resubmitted a formal application for the portion of the pipeline running from the Canadian border to Steele City, Nebraska. Speaking at the company’s annual shareholder’s meeting in Calgary, president Russ Girling said first two phases of the pipeline have already delivered more than 175 million barrels, or 500,000 barrels a day (b/d), of Canadian crude to US markets. He added that total delivered volumes to date are equivalent to a third of US strategic petroleum reserves. If it is fully expanded to 1.4m b/d, Keystone will move 40% of Canada’s exports and supply about 10% of US oil demand. Construction of the Wood River-Patoka segment was completed in 2010, and first oi