TransCanada Corp is in talks to get into the crude-by-rail business, Reuters reported, and will probably do so even if its Keystone XL pipeline extension project goes forward, its CEO said on Wednesday.
“If I were to put a probability one it, I'd say there’s a better than 50-50 chance that we will be in that business in some form or fashion in the future,” Russ Girling told the news agency.
Girling added that the company expects rail to be a larger part of the transportation mix, “so it’s likely a business that we’re in long-term irrespective of Keystone.”
In October TransCanada asked Canadian regulators to approve a pipeline to carry oil-sands crude across the country to Canada’s east coast. That line, the C$12 billion (US$11 billion) Energy East project, wouldn’t involve the U.S., and would provide a route for Canadian oil to move by tanker to the Gulf Coast, Bloomberg reported.
Finding their own alternatives, oil producers are boosting shipments on trains to the U.S. from Canada. Rail exports of crude have risen 54% from the beginning of last year to 163,000 barrels a day (bbl/d) in the third quarter, according to the National Energy Board. National Bank Financial predicts producers will be able to load 700,000 barrels onto trains in Canada next year.
Keystone XL would carry 830,000 bbl/d from Steele City, Neb., to link up with the company’s existing network to the Gulf Coast.
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