With the economic imperatives for the transborder pipeline leaking away as CBR rapidly picks up much of the Canadian oil sands business, TransCanada Corp. CEO Russ Girling says his company will likely develop its own rolling pipeline capacity, whether or not Keystone XL is eventually approved by President Obama (or his successor).
“The marketplace has learned that it is flexible, it can be put in place relatively quickly, and it doesn’t have the same regulatory hurdles as building pipe does,” Girling said at the company’s Nov. 19 investor conference in Toronto. “I think it plays a larger role in the future than it has in the past, and therefore it’s likely a business that we’re in long-term, irrespective of Keystone.”
Girling said he is actively courting customers for a future CBR service from Alberta’s northern oil sands to refiners on the Gulf Coast. “I would say there’s a better than 50-50 chance that we will be in that business in some form or fashion in the future, and it will take us some time here to actually nail down the agreements to underpin those investments,” he said.
The longer Keystone and other pipeline proposals remain in political limbo, the greater will be TransCanada’s commitment to CBR, said Girling. “To the extent that they’re delayed, I would say the scale of that business would be larger than it would be if we see these approvals happen in the near term,” he said.