The Keystone Pipeline System is an oil pipeline system in Canada and the United States, commissioned in 2010 by TransCanada (later TC Energy). It is owned by South Bow, since TC Energy's spin off of its liquids business into a separate publicly traded company, effective October 1, 2024. It runs from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Alberta to refineries in Illinois and Texas, and also to oil tank farms and an oil pipeline distribution center in Cushing, Oklahoma.
TransCanada Keystone Pipeline GP Ltd, abbreviated here as Keystone, operates four phases of the project. In 2013, the first two phases had the capacity to deliver up to per day of oil into the Midwest refineries. Phase III has capacity to deliver up to per day to the Texas refineries. By comparison, production of petroleum in the United States averaged per day in first-half 2015, with gross exports of per day through July 2015.
A proposed fourth pipeline, called Keystone XL Pipeline (sometimes abbreviated KXL, with XL standing for "export limited"), would have connected the Phase I-pipeline terminals in Hardisty, Alberta, and Steele City, Nebraska, by a shorter route and a larger-diameter pipe. It would have run through Baker, Montana, where American-produced light crude oil from the Williston Basin (Bakken formation) of Montana and North Dakota would have been added to the Keystone's throughput of synthetic crude oil (syncrude) and diluted bitumen (dilbit) from the oil sands of Canada. It is unclear how much of the oil transported through the pipeline would have reached American consumers instead of being exported to other countries, as most of it would have been refined along the Gulf Coast.
The pipeline became well known when the proposed KXL extension attracted opposition from environmentalists with concerns about climate change and fossil fuels. In 2015, KXL was temporarily delayed by President Barack Obama. On January 24, 2017, President Donald Trump took action intended to permit the pipeline's completion. On January 20, 2021, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to revoke the permit that was granted to TC Energy Corporation for the Keystone XL Pipeline (Phase 4). On June 9, 2021, TC Energy abandoned plans for the Keystone XL Pipeline.
On April 30, 2026, President Donald Trump signed an executive order restarting the pipeline expansion between South Bow Pipeline and Bridger Pipeline, with a 1038 km route slightly altered to avoid the previous environmental concerns, and would end at Guernsey, Wyoming. On August 18, 2026, President Trump posted on Truth Social that the Keystone XL Pipeline plan may come back.
Description The Keystone Pipeline system consisted of the operational Phase I, Phase II, and Phase III, the Gulf Coast Pipeline Project. A fourth, proposed pipeline expansion segment Phase IV, Keystone XL, failed to receive necessary permits from the United States federal government in 2015. Construction of Phase III, from Cushing, Oklahoma, to Nederland, Texas, in the Gulf Coast area, began in August 2012 as an independent economic utility.It was presented to the United States State Department as an independent economic utility in February 2012, sidestepping the requirement for a Presidential Permit because it does not cross an international border (United States Department of State SEIS March 1, 2013 p. ES1). Phase III was opened on January 22, 2014, completing the pipeline path from Hardisty, Alberta to Nederland, Texas. The Keystone XL Pipeline Project (Phase IV) revised proposal in 2012 consists of a new pipeline from Hardisty, Alberta, through Montana and South Dakota to Steele City, Nebraska, to "transport of up to of crude oil from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Alberta, Canada, and from the Williston Basin (Bakken) region in Montana and North Dakota, primarily to refineries in the Gulf Coast area". The Keystone XL pipeline segments were intended to allow American crude oil to enter the XL pipelines at Baker, Montana, on their way to the storage and distribution facilities at Cushing, Oklahoma. Cushing is a major crude oil marketing/refining and pipeline hub.
Operating from 2010 to 2021, the original Keystone Pipeline System is a pipeline delivering Canadian crude oil to U.S. Midwest markets and Cushing, Oklahoma. In Canada, the first phase of Keystone involved the conversion of approximately of existing natural gas pipeline in Saskatchewan and Manitoba to crude oil pipeline service. It also included approximately of new pipeline, 16 pump stations and the Keystone Hardisty Terminal.
The U.S. portion of the Keystone Pipeline included of new, pipeline in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois. The pipeline has a minimum ground cover of . It also involved construction of 23 pump stations and delivery facilities at Wood River, Illinois and Patoka, Illinois. In 2011, the second phase of Keystone included a extension from Steele City, Nebraska, to Cushing, Oklahoma, and 11 new pump stations to increase the capacity of the pipeline from per day.
Additional phases (III, completed in 2014, and IV, rejected in 2015) have been in construction or discussion since 2011. If completed, the Keystone XL would have added per day increasing the total capacity up to per day. The original Keystone Pipeline cost US$5.2 billion. From January 2018 through December 31, 2019, Keystone XL development costs were $1.5 billion.
History The project was proposed in 2005 by the Calgary, Alberta-based TransCanada Corporation, and was approved by Canada's National Energy Board in 2007. On September 21, 2007, the National Energy Board of Canada approved the construction of the Canadian section of the pipeline, including converting a portion of TransCanada's Canadian Mainline gas pipeline to crude oil pipeline, on September 21, 2007.
In October 2007, the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada asked the Canadian federal government to block regulatory approvals for the pipeline, with union president Dave Coles stating, "the Keystone pipeline will exclusively serve US markets, create a permanent employment for very few Canadians, reduce our energy security, and hinder investment and job creation in the Canadian energy sector".
On January 22, 2008, ConocoPhillips acquired a 50% stake in the project. On March 17, 2008, during the final year of the Presidency of George W. Bush, the United States Department of State issued a Presidential Permit authorizing the construction, maintenance and operation of facilities at the United States and Canada border. In June 2008, the Keystone XL extension was proposed. Later that year, TransCanada began the process of becoming the sole owner of the pipeline. In 2009 it bought out ConocoPhillips' shares and reverted to being the sole owner. It took TransCanada more than two years to acquire all necessary state and federal permits for the pipeline. Construction took another two years.
In September 2009, the NEB – replaced in 2019 by the Canadian Energy Regulator (CER) – started hearings. The pipeline, from Hardisty, Alberta, Canada, to Patoka, Illinois, United States, became operational in June 2010. Later that year, the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission granted a permit to proceed. and in March 2010, the National Energy Board approved the project.
In June 2010, Keystone Pipeline (Phase I) was completed and was delivering oil from Hardisty, Alberta, over to the junction at Steele City, Nebraska, and on to Wood River Refinery in Roxana, Illinois, and Patoka Oil Terminal Hub north of Patoka, Illinois.
On July 21, 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency criticized the State Department's draft environmental impact study for neglecting concerns about oil spill response plans, safety issues and greenhouse gas. In February 2011, the Keystone-Cushing extension (Phase II) was completed running from Steele City to a tank farm in Cushing, Oklahoma.
On June 3, 2011, Pipeline Hazardous Materials and Safety Administration (PHMSA) issued TransCanada a Corrective Action Order (CAO), for Keystone's May 2011 leaks. Primary source On April 2, 2016, PHMSA issued a CAO to TransCanada for a leak in Hutchinson County, South Dakota, Primary source and again on April 9. Primary source The pipeline restarted at a reduced operating pressure on April 10 after the U.S. regulator approved the companies corrective actions and plan.De Souza, Mike. (April 10, 2016). "TransCanada restarts Keystone pipeline after repairing leak". National Observer website Retrieved November 18, 2017. A leak occurred in Marshall County, South Dakota in November 2017. This leak occurred early in the morning on November 16, 2017, near Amherst, South Dakota and was contained shortly after detection south of the Ludden pump station.
On August 26, 2011, the final environmental impact report was released, stating that the pipeline would pose "no significant impacts" to most resources if environmental protection measures are followed, but it would present "significant adverse effects to certain cultural resources".
In September 2011, Cornell ILR Global Labor Institute released the results of the GLI Keystone XL Report, which evaluated the pipeline's impact on employment, the environment, energy independence, the economy, and other critical areas.
On November 10, 2011, the Department of State postponed a final decision while investigating "potential alternative routes around the Sandhills in Nebraska" in response to concerns that the project was not in the United States' national interest. In its response, TransCanada pointed out fourteen different routes for Keystone XL were being studied, eight that impacted Nebraska. They included one potential alternative route in Nebraska that would have avoided the entire Sandhills region and Ogallala Aquifer and six alternatives that would have reduced pipeline mileage crossing the Sandhills or the aquifer.
In March 2012, Obama endorsed building the southern segment (Gulf Coast Extension or Phase III) that begins in Cushing, Oklahoma. The President said in Cushing, Oklahoma, on March 22, "Today, I'm directing my administration to cut through the red tape, break through the bureaucratic hurdles, and make this project a priority, to go ahead and get it done."
On January 22, 2014, the Gulf Coast Extension (Phase III) was completed, running from Cushing to refineries at Port Arthur, Texas.
In January 2014, the U.S. Department of State's (DoS) January 2014 "Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement" (SEIS) said that, "because of broader market dynamics and options for crude oil transport in the North American logistics system, the upstream and downstream activities are unlikely to be substantially different whether or not the proposed Project is constructed". On January 9, 2015, the Nebraska Supreme Court cleared the way for construction, after Republican Governor Dave Heineman had approved it in 2013.
On 14 November 2014, the House of Representatives passed a bill approving the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline in a 252–161 vote; however, the bill was rejected by the Senate four days later in a 59-41 votes, failing to reach the 60 votes threshold.
A second bill approving the construction of the pipeline was passed in a 62–36 vote on 29 January 2015 and by the House in a 270–152 vote on 11 February, but on 24 February it was vetoed by President Obama, who said that the approval decision should rest with the Executive Branch. The Senate was unable to override the veto by a two-thirds majority, with a 62–37 vote.Keystone veto override fails. March 4, 2015. On September 29, 2015, TransCanada dropped their lawsuit against Nebraska landowners who had refused permission for pipeline easements on their properties in order to exercise their eminent domain.