TransCanada Keystone Pipeline has applied to the State Department for a presidential permit that would authorize construction of a 1,702-mile, 36-inch pipeline expansion designed to transport crude oil from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Hardisty, Alberta, Canada, to facilities in Port Arthur and east Houston areas of South Texas.
The expansion, known as the Keystone XL Project, would have the nominal capacity to deliver up to 900,000 barrels per day from a supply hub near Hardisty to existing terminals in South Texas, officials said.
The project would require construction of three new pipeline segments, including one that would stretch from Cushing to Nederland, Texas.
Oklahoma counties the new pipeline would cross include Atoka, Bryan, Coal, Creek, Hughes, Lincoln, Okfuskee, Payne and Seminole.
Keystone plans to begin construction of the pipeline in 2010. Segments in Oklahoma and Texas are scheduled for completion in 2011, while an 850-mile segment that would stretch from Steele City, Neb., up into Canada is scheduled for completion in 2012.
That segment also would involve construction of a tank farm near Steele City that would include three, 350,000 barrel storage tanks.
The State Department is responsible for determining if the project is in the public interest.
In addition to studying the environmental impact of the proposed pipeline, State Department officials said they will be consulting with Indian tribes and historic preservation officers about whether the pipeline would cross sites that have potential for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.