New proposal may breathe life into long-dead Keystone XL pipeline

For years, Canadians were told the Keystone XL pipeline was dead and buried. Now? It might be inching back to life.

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For years, Canadians were told the Keystone XL pipeline was dead and buried.

Now? It might be inching back to life.

A company called Bridger Pipeline LLC has submitted a proposal to build a cross-border oil pipeline.

It could move up to 550,000 barrels of crude oil each day from the Canada-U.S. border in Montana to a storage center in Wyoming.

The plans show the pipeline would start near Phillips County, Montana. While the documents don’t say where the oil will come from in Canada, experts think the most likely source is the unfinished Keystone XL pipeline in Alberta.

Analysts at Plainsview Energy Analytics and RBN Energy believe the abandoned part of Keystone XL is the only way to get that much oil to the proposed border spot.

The Keystone XL project, first planned by TC Energy in 2008, was meant to carry 830,000 barrels of oil daily from Alberta to Nebraska. It was stopped in 2021 after years of debates and changing government approvals.

Parts of the pipeline were already built in Canada and are still there.

The assets of the Keystone network now belong to South Bow Corp.

The company hasn’t officially restarted the Keystone XL project, but it is looking at a plan to use the existing pipes and permits to connect with U.S. pipelines. They say this idea is still in its early stages.

This new proposal comes when Canadian oil companies need more ways to export their oil. Currently, the major pipelines to the West Coast (Trans Mountain) and the U.S. (Enbridge Mainline) are nearly full.

Using the old Keystone pipes could make this new project cheaper than building a completely new system.

Right now, Bridger Pipeline’s plan is only for the Montana-to-Wyoming section. No one has officially announced a plan to restart the Canadian part of Keystone XL.

However, industry observers say that the size and location of the new pipeline show it will need a large amount of oil from the border.

This puts the focus back on the unused Keystone XL infrastructure in Alberta.

The government is currently reviewing Bridger Pipeline’s proposal.