By Kevin Orland
Instead, the company will now work with the Army Corps to obtain individual permits for crossings while at the same time focusing this year’s construction work on areas where it already has approvals in hand, Chief Executive Officer Russ Girling said during the company’s second-quarter call.
The court’s decision had threatened to delay almost all work on Keystone XL in the U.S. until 2021.
An earlier start to work on Keystone XL would be a boon for the Canadian oil-sands industry, which has been hampered for years by a shortage of pipeline capacity. It would also be a relief for the government of Alberta, which has invested $1.1 billion in the project and provided it with a $4.2 billion loan guarantee.
The line would help carry 830,000 barrels of crude a day on a 1,200-mile, (1,900-kilometer) route from the Alberta oil hub of Hardisty to Steele City, Nebraska. From there, the oil would travel to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries that process heavy oil-sands crude.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump issued a new permit for TC’s existing Keystone system, allowing the company to raise the volume it ships on the line to 760,000 barrels a day from 590,000 under a previous presidential permit.
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