Canada’s South Bow flags need for durable U.S. permit before Keystone XL restart

Pipes meant for the defunct Keystone XL project are shown stacked at a yard in Gascoyne, N.D., on Wednesday April 22, 2015. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Alex Panetta

South Bow will not proceed with a partial revival of the Keystone XL pipeline until it has proof that a U.S. presidential permit is “durable,” the pipeline operator’s CEO, Bevin Wirzba, said on Thursday at the Energy Roundtable conference in Calgary.

The Alberta-to-Wyoming pipeline, proposed by South Bow and its U.S. partner Bridger Pipeline, could increase Canada’s crude exports to the U.S. by more than 12 per cent if it goes ahead, bringing much-needed pipeline takeaway capacity to Canada.

U.S. President Donald Trump in April signed an order granting a cross-border permit to a project that would revive parts of the Keystone XL pipeline to transport Canadian oil from the U.S.-Canada border to Guernsey, Wyo.

The new proposal involves a different route through the U.S. than the previous Keystone XL project, which was canceled by former U.S. president Joe Biden in 2021 after years of Indigenous and environmental opposition.

The company said in May it had begun work to secure regulatory approvals along the U.S. route of its proposed Prairie Connector project.

South Bow was spun off by former Keystone XL proponent TC Energy in 2024 to take over its oil pipeline business. Approximately 150 km (93 miles) of pipe has been built in Canada, sitting idle since Keystone XL’s cancellation.

Amanda Stephenson, Reuters