The current Keystone pipeline is nearly 3,500 kilometres long and pumps 500,000 barrels of crude oil a day from Hardisty, Alta., to refineries in Oklahoma and Illinois.
The proposed pipeline extension, Keystone XL, would bring Canadian oil all the way to Houston and Port Arthur, Texas, on the Gulf of Mexico.
If the expansion wins regulatory approval, TransCanada expects it to start up some time in 2013.
The expansion would more than double the volume of oil shipped from Canada into the U.S. And Liepert said a pipeline to the U.S. Gulf Coast would expand Canada's energy industry beyond the U.S. market.
The project has faced opposition in the U.S. Critics don't like the idea of what they call the "dirtiest oil in the world" making the trip through the American Midwest.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has expressed concerned about the risk of oil spills that could affect drinking water and sensitive ecosystems, as well as the effect of greenhouse gas emissions associated with the expansion.
The current Keystone pipeline has experienced leaks, including a small one in Kansas in June and a larger one in North Dakota in early May.
Should Alberta's cross-border oil pipeline be extended to Texas? Should the federal government lobby Washington on behalf of the Alberta oil industry to win approval?CBC Source
April 2011 Import Highlights: Released June 29, 2011
Monthly data on the origins of crude oil imports in April 2011 has been released and it shows that two countries exported more than 1,000 thousand barrels per day to the United States (see table below). The top five exporting countries accounted for 68 percent of United States crude oil imports in April while the top ten sources accounted for approximately 88 percent of all U.S. crude oil imports. The top five sources of US crude oil imports for April were Canada (2,079 thousand barrels per day), Saudi Arabia (1,089 thousand barrels per day), Mexico (973 thousand barrels per day), Venezuela (902 thousand barrels per day), and Nigeria (856 thousand barrels per day). The rest of the top ten sources, in order, were Iraq (519 thousand barrels per day), Colombia (462 thousand barrels per day), Russia (288 thousand barrels per day), Angola (277 thousand barrels per day), and Brazil (210 thousand barrels per day). Total crude oil imports averaged 8,715 thousand barrels per day in April, which is a decrease of 318 thousand barrels per day from March 2011. Canada remained the largest exporter of total petroleum in April, exporting 2,625 thousand barrels per day to the United States, which is a decrease from last month (2,666 thousand barrels per day). The second largest exporter of total petroleum was Saudi Arabia with 1,107 thousand barrels per day.
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After the driest eight-month period in Texas' recorded history, this barren ranch land has become inhospitable to even the most drought-resistant vegetation. So where, amid the severe dry spell, did all this pristine water come from? The query probably would not have been raised in non-drought times in this oil-friendly community. But as West Texas' reservoirs run dry, cities are scouring the region for their next water supply, and farmers are becoming more desperate for rainfall, oil companies here and elsewhere are pumping out millions of gallons of freshwater from underground aquifers. The purpose: To break loose rocks to get at trapped underground oil. The water is mixed with toxic chemicals and sand, and pumped into wells at high pressure to fracture the rock to expose the oil. It can take millions of gallons of fluid to hydraulically fracture, or "frack," a single well. Only about 20 percent to 25 percent on average of the water is recovered, while the rest disappears underground, never to be seen again. The Texas Water Development Board estimates the total amount of water used for fracking statewide in 2010 was 13.5 billion gallons. That's likely to more than double by 2020, and decline gradually each decade after that until dropping back down to current levels between 2050 and 2060. "We're using scarce resources to get scarce resources," said John Christmann, Permian Region vice president for Apache Corp., a Houston-based oil and gas company that operates in almost every West Texas county.
