PATOKA, Ill. - By early 2010, hundreds of thousands of barrels a day of Canadian crude oil will flow into a giant tank farm here.
Work is nearing completion on TransCanada’s 2,148-mile, 30-inch pipeline from the oil sand fields of Alberta, Canada, to refineries in Wood River, Ill., and an enormous tank farm at Patoka in rural Marion County.
The Keystone Pipeline was first announced in February 2005. It took a little more than two years to obtain permits from state and federal regulatory agencies. Construction didn't start until May 2008.
The line is nearly done, with safety testing under way. Initial crude oil shipments of 435,000 b/d are planned for the first quarter of 2010. By the end of 2010, the capacity will be increased to 590,000 b/d.
In its initial phase, oil from the Keystone project will flow into only a ConocoPhillips refinery at Wood River, Ill. During the second phase scheduled in 2010, oil flowing through a branch line to Cushing, Okla., will wind up in at least three refineries in Kansas.
Oil from the pipeline will be refined into gasoline and marketed over a wide area of the Midwest.
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