Remember the controversy over the proposed 1,173 mile long TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline that proposes to bring heavy crude from oil sands in Western Canada to the refineries in the Gulf Coast of the United States? It appears that the approval from the U.S. government may be delayed yet again until 2014. The State Department is still going through the environmental review process and reviewing the more than 2,000 page document as well as more than 1.5 million public comments it received. The general notion is that Canadian oil will find its way into the market even without the Keystone Pipeline delivering the same or comparable environmental impacts. So, the northern line is still in limbo.

In the meantime, the construction of the southern leg of the TransCanada’s Keystone Gulf Coast line is continuing and some expect the line to be in operation by the end of the year. Dubbed as the Keystone Gulf Coast line, the $2.3 billion 485 mile long project will bring light sweet crude from Cushing, Oklahoma to the refineries in Nederland, Texas. It is expected to deliver 700,000 barrels of oil per day and eventually will increase to 830,000 barrels a day.