The United States' oil dependence on Canada, already America's largest supplier, is about to grow under a plan to build a new pipeline to transport oil from the tar sands of Alberta into the central part of the nation.
TransCanada Corporation, a public company traded on the New York Stock Exchange, has announced the TransCanada Keystone Pipeline has been given a final Environmental Impact Statement approval from the U.S. Department of State because of the limited adverse environmental impacts that are expected.
TRENDING: Jihad against Christians is due to … climate change?
The approval is the result of nearly two years of analysis of the project proposal by more than a dozen U.S. federal agencies and other interested stakeholders.
Now that the EIS is finished, TransCanada expects to receive authorization soon to begin the construction and operation of the pipeline at the U.S./Canada border crossing.
The pipeline, planned for 2,148 miles, will bring oil from Hardisty, Alberta, Canada, to U.S. markets in Illinois and the Midwest, with an extension down to Cushing, Okla.
Just last week ConocoPhillips and TransCanada announced ConocoPhillips had acquired a 50 percent ownership interest in the Keystone Pipeline.
Pipeline map |
Hal Kvisle, TransCanada president, plans to begin construction on the pipeline in the second quarter 2008, with an in-service date set for the fourth quarter 2009.
In 2004, Canada replaced Saudi Arabia as the leading supplier of crude oil to the United States.
According to the Energy Information Administration, the leading suppliers of U.S. oil in Nov. 2007 were: Canada, 2.431 million barrels per day; Saudi Arabia, 1.620 million barrels per day; Mexico, 1.581 million barrels per day; Venezuela, 1.381 million barrels per day; and Nigeria, 1.306 million barrels per day.
According to Canada's Globe and Mail, by 2015 and the completion of the project, Canadian oil exports to the U.S. are expected to increase to three million barrels a day.
Plans also are under way to extend Canadian pipelines down to the Texas Gulf Coast where the Texas refineries used to processing the "heavy" and "sour" oil processed from Mexico and Venezuela are well suited to process the sticky crude produced from Alberta's oil sands.
Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Nigeria are members of OPEC, the Organization of Oil Exporting Countries.
Related offer:
Buy "Black Gold Stranglehold" at WorldNetDaily's online store.
Previous stories:
Brazil reports massive oil discovery
$1 billion a day for foreign oil
Massive oil field found under Gulf'
'Black Gold' strikes Big Oil 'nerve'
'Hundreds of years' of oil available
Forget everything you know about oil
Previous columns:
How exactly do 'fossils' make 'fuel'?
Mexico's Cantarell Field caused by meteor impact
What if we don't run out of oil?
Saudi Arabia: 1.2 trillion barrels of oil ... or more
Brazil's giant offshore oil discoveries
Why the ANWR battle must be won
Russia’s largest field is far from depleted
Senate should make oil executives come clean
'Hubbert's Peak' is a failed theory
Saudi Arabia isn't running out of oil!