TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL crude oil pipeline will not be built with US-produced steel pipe, according to the administration of President Donald Trump.
White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said that the executive order declaring that all pipelines built in the US would use pipe and steel produced in the US was “specific to new pipelines or those that are being repaired. And since [Keystone XL] is already currently under construction, the steel is already literally sitting there, it would be hard to go back. But I know that everything moving forward would fall under that executive order.”
TransCanada had previously indicated that about 50% of the pipe it intended to use on Keystone XL had been manufactured in the US, but that much of even that portion was likely made using foreign-sourced steel (OGJ, Mar. 6, 2017, p. 32).
The memorandum signed by the president invited TransCanada Pipeline Ltd. to resubmit its application for Keystone XL and directed the departments of State and the Interior and the secretary of the Army to make a permitting decision within 60 days. TransCanada resubmitted its application Jan. 26, 2017.
The company filed a separate application Feb. 16, 2017, with Nebraska’s Public Service Commission for route approval through the state, proposing three possible paths. TransCanada expects the state’s review to conclude this year.
