Tag Archives: Girling

TransCanada’s
 Oil Import Totals
 Just Don’t Add Up

“Since 2008, almost 10,000 miles of oil pipelines have been constructed in the United States – the equivalent of eight Keystone XL pipelines – and yet our project sits idle, all while the U.S. continues to import over seven million barrels of oil from unstable countries.”

 –Russ Girling, TransCanada president and CEO

Girling’s quote was taken directly from TransCanada’s website (http://keystone-xl.com/russ-girling-comments-on-the-debate-and-vote-on-u-s-senate-bill-2280/) so there can be no concern about its accuracy. It’s too bad his oil import figures aren’t equally accurate.

According to current EIA statistics, the U.S. imported 9.859 million barrels of crude oil and product a day (mb/d) in 2013. That clearly tops Girling’s claimed figure of 7 mb/d, but then there is that small question of just what is an `unstable’ country.

Within that 9.8 md/b total, EIA said, were imports from:

  • Canada, 3.142 mb/d;
  • Mexico, 919,000 barrels/day; and
  • U.K., 147,000 b/d.

Now sensible minds can disagree about pretty much anything, but I think everyone can agree that Canada, Mexico and the U.K. are not unstable and, in fact, are three of the U.S.’ most trusted energy partners.

Take their imports out of the mix and the 2013 total falls to just 5.651 mb/d—well under Girling’s claimed 7 mb/d.

Beyond those easy three are U.S. imports from Colombia and Venezuela totaling just under 1.2 mb/d. The U.S. has had major political differences with the Venezuelan regime, but that has never intruded into the energy arena.

Take them out of the equation, and the total drops to just 4.456 mb/d.

The Keystone XL pipeline may be justified, but Girling and TransCanada should argue for it on its merits, not through fear-mongering and seemingly intentional misstatements of U.S. energy statistics.

–Dennis Wamsted