April 8, 2013

The Keystone XL oil pipeline: Some questions and answers

President Obama will decide this year whether to allow the project to carry oil sands crude from Canada to U.S. ports.

This year President Obama will decide whether to allow construction of the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf of Mexico. Few environmental issues in recent years have engendered so much passion and debate. The pipeline would facilitate the transportation of a particularly thick type of oil, oil sands crude, from Canada to U.S. ports.

What is oil sands crude?

It is a tar-like substance containing bitumen, extracted from the boreal forests of western Canada by strip mining.

Where would the pipeline go?

If approved, Keystone XL would carry 830,000 barrels a day from Alberta to refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast. Canada is already the biggest exporter of oil to the United States.

Why is this issue so important to the Canadian government?

Only 4% of Canada's 170 billion barrels in proven reserves of oil sands crude has been developed, and Canada sees the deposits as a massive source of wealth. The United States buys 98.5% of Canadian oil exports at a great discount compared with global prices. Canada wants the pipeline built so it can sell to the world market.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-keystone-qa-20130407,0,7871332.story


I realize that many already know this, but I thought it was a pretty clear explanation...