Pipes intended for construction of the Keystone XL pipeline are shown in Gascoyne, N.D. on April 22, 2015.Alex Panetta/The Canadian Press
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeated calls to get the Keystone XL pipeline built, but the project’s former proponent, TC Energy Corp. TRP-T, says it’s “no longer in the oil pipeline business.”
The pipeline was first proposed in 2008 by TC, then called TransCanada, to bring crude from Canada’s oil sands to U.S. refiners. It was halted in 2021 by TC after then-U.S. president Joe Biden revoked a key permit needed for an American stretch of the project.
TC became a natural gas infrastructure and power business late last year, after spinning off the oil side of its operations into a new company called South Bow Corp. SOBO-T
South Bow said Tuesday in an e-mail that it has “moved on” from Keystone.
“We continue to engage with customers to develop options to increase Canadian oil supplies to meet growing demand,” it wrote.
Mr. Trump on Monday pledged easy regulatory approvals for the project, which was opposed for years by environmentalists before its permit was revoked by the Biden administration.
In a social-media post, he urged the company that was building the pipeline to “come back to America,” saying that his administration would enable construction to begin quickly.
“The Trump Administration is very different (from the Biden administration) – Easy approvals, almost immediate start! If not them, perhaps another Pipeline Company. We want the Keystone XL Pipeline built,” Mr. Trump said in the post.
The Keystone XL pipeline was expected to carry 830,000 barrels a day of Alberta oil sands crude to Nebraska, but the project was delayed because of opposition from U.S. landowners, Native American tribes and environmentalists.
Mr. Trump had approved a permit for the line in 2017, but it continued to face legal challenges that hampered construction. Mr. Biden had committed to cancelling the project during his 2020 campaign, and revoked the permit soon after taking office in 2021.
With reports from Reuters