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With the proposed Keystone XL pipeline beached for 18 months thanks to environmental lobby opposition, pipeline companies are switching to a step-by-step strategy to push growing Canadian oil production down to the U.S. Gulf Coast.
It’s a tough chess game next to the door-to-door, Alberta-to-Texas Keystone XL solution, but it could mean greater success and derail the greens’ goal to shut down the oil sands.
On Wednesday, Calgary-based Enbridge Inc., rival of Keystone XL proponent TransCanada Corp., announced the purchase of ConocoPhillip’s 50% interest in the Seaway pipeline for US$1.15 billion. Enbridge and its partner, Houston-based Enterprise Products Partners LP, owner of Seaway’s remaining 50%, plan to reverse the flow of the pipeline that currently moves oil from Freeport, Tex., to the Cushing, Okla., oil storage hub, where a glut has depressed Midwest oil prices below world prices.