TransCanada to build $500 million natural gas pipeline extension in Mexico

CALGARY, Alta. - TransCanada Corp. on Feb. 27 announced that it will build, own and operate the Tamazunchale Pipeline Extension in Mexico.

Construction of the natural gas pipeline is supported by the award of a 25-year natural gas transportation service contract by the Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE), Mexico's state-owned power company.

TransCanada expects to invest approximately US$500 million in the pipeline and anticipates an in-service date in the first quarter of 2014. The project will be 146 miles long and have contracted capacity of 630 million cubic feet a day (MMCf/d). The pipeline will use a combination of 30- and 36-inch-diameter pipe and have 37 megawatts of installed compression.

The pipeline will originate at the terminus of TransCanada's existing Tamazunchale Pipeline in the state of San Luis Potosi and extend through the states of Hidalgo and Queretaro, where it will connect with Mexico's National Pipeline System and serve a CFE combined-cycle power generating facility near El Sauz, Queretaro.

"The Tamazunchale Pipeline Extension demonstrates our continued commitment to developing Mexico's energy infrastructure to meet growing requirements for increased natural gas supply," said Russ Girling, TransCanada's president and chief executive officer.

U.S. State Department sees no major harm from Keystone XL pipeline

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A proposed pipeline to bring oil from Canada's tar sands to the U.S. Gulf Coast would have "no significant impact" on the environment, the U.S. State Department said on Aug. 26.

In a long-awaited environmental impact statement on the massive Keystone XL project, which has prompted repeated protests, the State Department said the pipeline would be safer than most current oil transport systems.

"There would be no significant impact to most resources along the proposed pipeline corridor," Assistant Secretary of State Kerri-Ann Jones told reporters upon the release of the report.

The 1,000-page report says no significant problems have emerged since a similar report was issued last year.

Jones said the report, which is one step in the regulatory process, does not indicate approval or denial of the massive pipeline. U.S. officials are due to make a final decision later this year after further review and hearings.

"This is not a lean in any way toward one particular decision or another," said Jones, the assistant secretary for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs.

The report said that with extra precautions planned, the pipeline "would have a degree of safety greater than any typically constructed domestic oil pipeline system under current regulations."

It also said that scrapping the pipeline would have its own environmental costs, because refineries in the United States would then need to transport oil by other means such as trucks, railroads, barges and marine tankers.

The report did cite some potential problems in the event of a spill in "environmentally sensitive areas," including wetlands, rivers and other water resources, as well as areas with a high concentration of plants and wildlife.

As to a possible alternate route for the pipeline, the report said it "did not find any of the major alternatives to be preferable."

More than 100 arrested in Washington in Keystone XL protests

WASHINGTON - Fresh arrests on Aug. 21 marked a second day of protests at the White House by environmental activists who said they were staging a two-week sit-in in a bid to halt the proposed TransCanada Keystone XL oil pipeline.

Demonstrators from the Tar Sands Action group and a coalition of local and national groups are hoping a campaign of civil disobedience will push President Barack Obama to deny a permit for a new pipeline stretching from Canada to the US Gulf Coast.

"Saturday's arrests and overnight jailings are already lighting a fire," Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said on Aug. 21.

"More people are now inspired, determined, and committed to join," said Tidwell in a statement from jail, after he was arrested on Aug. 21.

Tar Sands said on its Web site that 50 people were arrested on Aug. 21 at a sit-in outside the White House front fence on Lafayette Square when they declined a request by U.S. Park Police to move. They joined the more than 50 people detained a day earlier.

Potential Keystone XL leaks grossly underestimated, study finds

A study released on June 11 suggests that the worst-case spill scenarios contemplated by TransCanada, the company behind a proposed 2,000-mile pipeline linking oil deposits in Canada to the American Gulf Coast, are grossly underestimated - and that hundreds of rivers, streams and aquifers are vulnerable to toxic oil contamination.

The analysis, conducted by a professor of civil engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln at the request of the environmental group Friends of the Earth, examined methods used by TransCanada to calculate spill scenarios for an existing leg of the pipeline system, known as Keystone, and determined that the company made "flawed and inappropriate assumptions about the frequency and severity of expected spills from its pipelines."

Among other things, the analysis concludes that while TransCanada has estimated that the proposed Keystone XL expansion pipeline would experience 11 significant spills of more than 50 barrels, or 2,100 gallons, of crude oil over a 50-year lifespan, "a more realistic assessment is 91 significant spills."

The analysis also suggests that TransCanada tweaked its spill factor calculations to produce an estimate of one major spill on the 1,673 miles of pipeline about every five years. But an examination of government data on spill rates for similar pipelines, according to the study, suggests that Keystone would experience "a more likely average of almost two major spills per year."

In just one year of operation, the existing leg of the pipeline has had one significant spill and 11 smaller spills.

The study also concluded that the amount of time it would take to shut down the proposed pipeline should a leak occur at or near a river crossing - among the most environmentally sensitive points along any pipeline - could be as much as 10 times greater than that assumed by TransCanada.

Keystone XL would cross nearly 2,000 rivers in six states.

Regulators allow Keystone oil pipeline to restart after repairs completed

WASHINGTON - U.S. regulators have allowed TransCanada to restart its Keystone oil pipeline after the company completed repairs and safety tests.

In a letter to TransCanada, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) said, "Based on a review of the information submitted, the restart plan is approved."

PHMSA's approval to restart the pipeline marks a reversal of its decision on June 3 after it had issued a corrective action order or COA to TransCanada that barred the company from restarting the pipeline, citing two leaks in the pipeline in the month of May.

Oil from the 1,300-mile pipeline that extends from Canada to Cushing, Okla., and Patoka and Wood River, Ill., began flowing on June 5 under a revised order from the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). The agency approved the revision on June 4.

The pipeline has been closed since May 29, when workers reported a 10-barrel leak in Kansas. That followed a leak of 400 barrels of oil in North Dakota on May 7.

Russ Girling, president and chief executive officer of TransCanada said, "TransCanada takes all incidents very seriously. Almost all of the oil releases over the last 11 months on Keystone have been minor - averaging just five to 10 gallons of oil. The vast majority of that oil was confined to our property and in all cases was cleaned up quickly. None of the incidents involved the pipe in the ground - the integrity of Keystone is sound."