Oil From Oklahoma Hub is Filling Southern Leg of Keystone XL Pipeline

• Joe Wertz
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  Joe Wertz was a reporter and managing editor for StateImpact Oklahoma from 2011-2019. He reported on energy and environment issues for national NPR audiences and other national outlets. He previously worked as a managing editor, assistant editor and staff reporter at several major Oklahoma newspapers and studied journalism at the University of Central Oklahoma.

Joe Wertz

Construction started on the Keystone Gulf extension in 2012. Here, contractors bury as section of the pipe near Stroud, Okla.

Crude oil has started filling the southern portion of the Keystone XL pipeline, which is expected to go into service on Jan. 3, 2014.

Over the next few weeks, pipeline operator TransCanada will inject 3 million barrels into the 485-mile pipeline, which connects Oklahoma’s Cushing oil hub with refineries along the Gulf Coast, The Oklahoman‘s Jay Marks reports:

The pipeline, dubbed the Gulf Coast Project, is the southern leg of TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport oil from Canada’s oil sands and the Bakken Shale in North Dakota to refineries in the Houston area.

The Keystone XL pipeline, particularly the project’s northern route, has been a source of debate between the oil and gas industry and environmentalists. The proposed pipeline project became political when President Barack Obama refused to issue a permit for the pipeline to cross the U.S./Canadian border.

Oklahoma’s oil industry is anxious for the pipeline to come online to help relieve a glut of crude oil at Cushing, a bottleneck the industry says is hurting Oklahoma’s economy.