12-04-08 Construction of a 2,148-mile-long oil pipeline that will transport Canadian oil to south-western Illinois should get under way soon.
The $ 5.2 bn Keystone Pipeline will connect subsidiaries of one of the continent's largest providers of gas storage, TransCanada in Hardesty, Alberta, to Patoka, Illinois, about 65 miles east of ConocoPhillips' Wood River Refinery in Roxana.

ConocoPhillips spokesman Bill Graham said the Houston-based refinery received a Presidential Permit from the US State Department on March 14. He said the pipeline would transport up to 590,000 barrels of crude oil a day and should be in operation by late next year.
"It's moving ahead," Graham said. "The Keystone oil pipeline has received the necessary permits to begin construction by the second quarter."

The underground pipeline will be 30 inches wide with a minimum depth of 4 feet in agricultural areas. The pipeline corridor will be about 50 feet wide and will snake through Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Missouri into Illinois.
Graham said that the Wood River Refinery is still pursing a new $ 2 bn coke plant and has yet to receive regulatory approval. The unit would be the second coker at the Roxana plant.

ConocoPhillips is the nation's third-largest integrated energy company and among the largest employers in metro-east, with 800 employees.