Canada’s key to oil-sands growth: Export routes

The US is likely to approve Keystone XL. But Canada has realised that other export routes are necessary, too

Keystone XL (KXL) is one pipeline on a continent crisscrossed by almost 1 million km of them. Yet no other infrastructure project symbolises Canada’s broader aspirations to become a global oil player – the “energy superpower” of prime minister Stephen Harper’s dreams – than TransCanada’s proposed 1,900 km conduit to the US Gulf Coast. Now in its fifth year of review by the US State Department, a final decision on the controversial proposal is expected before the end of the year. However, KXL also exposes the difficulty in capturing new markets for Canada’s rising tide of bitumen and synthetic crude. Regardless of KXL’s fate, Canada now