US State Department to continue Keystone XL review

OREANDA-NEWS. November 06, 2015.  The US State Department will continue the review of the proposed 830,000 b/d Keystone XL oil pipeline despite TransCanada's request to pause the process.

"We have communicated our decision to continue our review to TransCanada. We are not required to pause it at the applicant's request," the State Department said today.

The Canadian pipeline giant on 3 November asked the State Department to pause its review of Keystone XL while Nebraska officials review it. The US administration has been reviewing the application for the \\$8bn pipeline since 2008. The pipeline would transport crude from Canada's oil sands and the Bakken formation to Nebraska, where it then would link up with an existing pipeline network to feed refineries along the US Gulf coast.

"A lot of intra-agency review has gone into that, and significant review here and [secretary of state John Kerry] believes that should be kept in place," the State Department said. The only way for the review process to end is for TransCanada to withdraw the application, the agency said.

The delay request was seen by many as an effort to avoid a rejection from the state department and wait until a new, more industry-friendly administration was in the White House. TransCanada denies that was the motivation, and said today it respects the decision to continue the review.

"Our efforts will continue to demonstrate that Keystone XL is in the national interest of the United States — just as five reports and 17,000 pages of State Department review have demonstrated over the past seven-plus years," TransCanada said today. "If the decision on a presidential permit for Keystone XL is based on its merits and on science over symbolism it will be approved."

The White House yesterday called the request for a delay unusual, "given how long [the review process] has taken." The White House blamed the length of the review on the legal challenges in Nebraska and on the politicization of the project.

"There is probably no infrastructure project in the history of the United States that has been as politicized as this one," White House spokesman Josh Ernest said.

The State Department did not provide a timeline for the completion of its review. But the White House said the administration will make a decision by the time US president Barack Obama leaves office in January 2017.