April 2013, Vol. 240 No. 4

Features

EIAs Short-Term Look At Crude Oil Pipeline Infrastructure

The rapid growth of production from tight oil plays in the U.S. mid?continent, as well as the development of oil sands in Canada, have dramatically changed the balance of flows at Cushing, OK, which was historically the distribution hub of imported and West Texas produced crude oil for Gulf Coast refineries. During the last three years, pipeline capacity for delivering crude oil to Cushing increased by about 815,000 bbl/d (solid lines on Figure 5). The key development was the construction of the 590,000 bbl/d TransCanada Keystone pipeline that originates in Hardisty, Alberta, Canada. Phase 1 of the Keystone pipeline, which runs from Hardisty to Steele City, Nebraska, and on to P