The following post is written by Roger Conrad. Potential shortage of oil pipelines? Sometime early in the next decade the US will overtake Saudi Arabia as the world’s most prolific producer of oil. That’s according to the US Energy Information Administration. The key is new technology that’s unlocked vast reservoirs of oil and natural gas heretofore trapped under shale. And it’s spurred a production boom in Canada as well from previously untapped areas such as the Cardium Formation, the Duvernay Shale and the Montney Shale. The North American energy explosion has the potential to enrich scores of individual companies and their investors as well as to provide an immense economic benefit to the US and Canada. There’s just one problem: Rising production to date has run well ahead of the ability to get the energy to market. Simply, most of today’s prime areas of energy production from shale haven’t been drilled in the recent past. As a result they lack adequate pipelines, gathering ...

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TransCanada Corp (TRP) and Phoenix Energy Holdings Ltd. announce Grand Rapids Pipeline project. TransCanada Corp (TRP) and Phoenix Energy Holdings Ltd. have announced a proposal to build a C$3 Billion pipeline project in northern Alberta. Named the Grand Rapids Pipeline, it will carry crude oil and diluent (a kind of thinner to help the crude flow freely through the pipelines) from the Athabasca oil sands northwest of Fort McMurray 500 km south to the Edmonton-Hartland area. The pipeline will help fill the increasing need for oil transportation infrastructure surrounding the even growing oil sands regions of northern Alberta. The routing of the Grand Rapids Pipeline has yet to be finalized, with specific concerns relating to the environment, aboriginal and stakeholder input, as well as economics and land use still to be addressed. If the project is granted regulatory approval next year, TransCanada expects to be transporting as much as 900,000 barrels of crude oil plus over 300,000 barrels ...

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