TransCanada Corp backs away from building Keystone XL Pipeline as financial rationale has dried up

The Keystone XL pipeline as planned

Great news about piping the world’s dirtiest oil across the Great Plains to export terminals on the Gulf of Mexico. It may not happen any time in the foreseeable future. 

Developer might not build Keystone XL pipeline

BY TIMOTHY CAMA 

A TransCanada Corp. executive told investors Friday that it is still assessing interest in Keystone among the oil companies that would pay to use the Canada-to-Texas line, as well as seeking remaining regulatory approvals, and it will likely decide in November or December whether to build.

The disclosure means that one of President Trump’s signature energy policy promises — to approve Keystone and get it built — may fall victim to commercial pressures and not get done.

He said the Canadian company is launching an “open season” to actively seek out contracts for the $7 billion pipeline with a capacity of 830,000 barrels, through September. The company also needs approval from Nebraska for its route through that state.

“Our assessment of these factors will really drive our investment decisions when we get into that November-December time frame,” he said.

Low oil prices have made extracting and transporting the expensive to produce oil from Canada’s  Tar Sands un-competitive on world markets.

Those same financial constraints may even affect Canada’s controversial project to twin the TransMountain pipeline from Alberta to a terminal on Barrard Inlet in the Vancouver BC metro area, intended to pump in diluted bitumen from the Canadian tar sands for export through Vancouver harbor, and the Salish Sea.