I live in the Bakken field.
Rockin’ the Bakken!
Rush is behind on this issue. The oil pipeline is already moving the oil from the Bakken field to the Gulf Coast. The pipeline was previously ended in OK, causing a glut of crude in the middle of the country.
Recently, CONOCO agreed to sell its 50% of a pipeline from the Gulf Coast to the Bakken field. The direction of that portion of the pipeline was reversed and all that was left to do was connect the two pipelines at the CONOCO refinery in OK. Its a done deal. We don’t need the Canadian oil and we don’t need a second pipeline. All that is needed to get the Canadian oil to market is to connect the Canadian oil fields.
What this will do to the oil market, though, is to raise prices. The glut of oil in the middle of the country was suppressing the market price of US oil. Now that the oil can reach the Gulf Coast refineries, it can be exported to Europe to free Europe from dependence on the Iranian oil and reduce the hold of OPEC on world politics. It’s legal to export refined product from the Gulf, but not crude.
The oil companies did an end around on the Obama administration on this and now Canada wants to pile on. Makes sense, but will not create the pipeline jobs that were hoped for.
The Obama administration was well aware of this play before they banned the Keystone XL, and took advantage of the situation to play to its radical green base.