The northern leg of a
TransCanada Corp’s (
TSX: T.TRP,
Stock Forum) Keystone XL pipeline may be mired in controversy, but the southern leg of the project is almost complete, a spokesman told the Houston Chronicle’s Fuel Fix blog.
Dubbed the Gulf Coast pipeline, the southern leg is on track to begin carrying up to 700,000 barrels of oil per day from Cushing, Oka, to Nederland, Texas by the end of 2013. TransCanada expects to ramp up capacity to 830,000 barrels per day.
The Gulf Coast pipeline is part of the larger plan to bring Canadian oil to the refineries in the Gulf of Mexico area via the controversial Keystone XL.
The 1,179-mile Keystone XL would take oil from Hardisty, Alberta in Canada to Steele City, Nebraska.
From there the oil would flow through an existing extension line to Cushing, Okla, and then on to refineries in the Gulf.
The U.S. State Department is involved with Keystone XL project because the line crosses the Canadian border.
The Oklahoma-Texas leg did not need to go through the same process, but it doesn’t mean it has had an easy time. It has faced fierce opposition as well, including environmentalists camping in trees and tying themselves to equipment to thwart the line’s construction.
Most of the construction work on the Gulf Coast pipeline is done, and inspections are next, Fuel Fix quoted TransCanada’s spokesman as saying.
“The Gulf Coast Pipeline is over 80% complete,’’ said Grady Semmens, a TransCanada spokesman in an interview with FuelFix.
TransCanada shares were virtually unchanged Friday, easing 0.02% to $45.59, leaving the company with a market cap of $32.2 billion, based on 707 million shares outstanding. The 52-week range is $51.21 and $42.73.