The Keystone Pipeline System is an oil pipeline system in Canada and the United States.It runs from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Alberta, Canada to refineries in Illinois and Texas, and also to oil tank farms and oil pipeline distribution center in Cushing, Oklahoma.
Three phases of the project are in operation, and the fourth is awaiting U.S. government approval. They are:
The first two phases have the capacity to deliver up to 590,000 barrels per day (94,000 m3/d) of oil into the Mid-West refineries.Phase III has capacity to deliver up to 700,000 barrels per day (110,000 m3/d) to the Texas refineries. By comparison, U.S. oil production was about 9,000,000 barrels per day (1,400,000 m3/d) in early November, 2014; and in the preceding twelve months through August 2014, the US imported an average of about 7.5 million barrels of oil per day.
The Keystone XL proposal faces criticism from environmentalists and some members of the United States Congress. In January 2012, President Barack Obama rejected the application amid protests about the pipeline's impact on Nebraska's environmentally sensitive Sand Hills region. TransCanada Corporation changed the original proposed route of Keystone XL to minimize "disturbance of land, water resources and special areas"; the new route was approved by Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman in January 2013. On April 18, 2014 the Obama administration announced that the review of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline has been extended indefinitely, pending the result of a legal challenge to a Nebraska pipeline citing law that could change the route.
Three phases of the project are in operation, and the fourth is awaiting U.S. government approval. They are:
- The Keystone Pipeline (Phase I), delivering oil from Hardisty, Alberta 3,456-kilometre (2,147 mi) to the junction at Steele City, Nebraska and on to refineries at Wood River, Illinois and Patoka, Illinois, completed in June 2010.
- The Keystone-Cushing extension (Phase II), running 480-kilometre (300 mi) from Steele City to storage and distribution facilities at Cushing, Oklahoma,[8] completed in February 2011.
- The Gulf Coast Extension (Phase III), running 784-kilometre (487 mi) from Cushing to refineries at Port Arthur, Texas was completed in January 2014, and a lateral pipeline to refineries at Houston, Texas and a terminal will be completed in mid-2015.
- The proposed Keystone XL Pipeline (Phase IV), which would essentially duplicate the Phase I pipeline between Hardisty, Alberta, and Steele City, Nebraska, with a shorter route and a larger-diameter pipe. It would run through Baker, Montana, where American-produced light crude oil from the Williston Basin (Bakken formation) of Montana and North Dakota would be added to the Keystone's current throughput of synthetic crude oil (syncrude) and diluted bitumen (dilbit) from the oil sands of Canada.
The first two phases have the capacity to deliver up to 590,000 barrels per day (94,000 m3/d) of oil into the Mid-West refineries.Phase III has capacity to deliver up to 700,000 barrels per day (110,000 m3/d) to the Texas refineries. By comparison, U.S. oil production was about 9,000,000 barrels per day (1,400,000 m3/d) in early November, 2014; and in the preceding twelve months through August 2014, the US imported an average of about 7.5 million barrels of oil per day.
The Keystone XL proposal faces criticism from environmentalists and some members of the United States Congress. In January 2012, President Barack Obama rejected the application amid protests about the pipeline's impact on Nebraska's environmentally sensitive Sand Hills region. TransCanada Corporation changed the original proposed route of Keystone XL to minimize "disturbance of land, water resources and special areas"; the new route was approved by Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman in January 2013. On April 18, 2014 the Obama administration announced that the review of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline has been extended indefinitely, pending the result of a legal challenge to a Nebraska pipeline citing law that could change the route.
PHOTO CREDITS: VIA CLIMATE DESK
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