Conoco to extend pipeline to US Gulf

TransCanada（http://www.new-energy-supply.com/）, the country's biggest pipeline firm, said it decided to go ahead with the project after customers committed to ship 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) on the line for an 18-year term. The remaining space on the new line that is not taken by the anchor shippers will be up for bids in a binding open season that begins on Wednesday and runs until Sept. 4. 'We've had support from both producers and refiners,' said Russ Girling, president of TransCanada's pipeline division. 'It's a good mix at both ends.' Keystone（http://www.new-energy-supply.com/） is one of a number of new pipeline projects, either under way or on drawing boards, aimed at accommodating a massive expansion of oil production from the oil sands of northern Alberta. Output from the oil sands, the biggest storehouse of oil outside the Middle East, is expected to nearly double to 2.8 million bpd by 2015 and could replace declining Mexican and Venezuelan supplies for U.S. refiners on the Gulf of Mexico. 'Most (producers) have been looking to the Midwest and southern Midwest markets,' said Greg Stringham（http://www.new-energy-supply.com/）, vice-president, markets and fiscal policy, at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. 'This will extend to the Houston market ... which really is a big market and has the capacity to handle this oil.'