The US State Department has announced it will approve by end-March 2016 the permit to proceed for the Canada-United States Keystone XL oil pipeline.
The 830,000 bbl/d Keystone XL project, developed by TransCanada to link the Alberta oil sands to the United States (Nebraska) over a 1,897 km (1,200 miles) route, had been repeatedly delayed by the previous US Government. The project cost is estimated at US$8bn.
Keystone, worth US$8bn, is a highly controversial project which was approved by the US Senate and the House of Representatives in 2015, but was finally vetoed by President Obama. Later on, TransCanada initiated a claim under Chapter 11 of NAFTA, seeking to recover more than US$15bn in costs and damages.
With the project approval, TransCanada will be able to ship crude from Canada's sand oil producing regions to refineries on the US Coast, running through Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska.