34 Project Management for the Oil and Gas Industry

d
lui
gf

Wastewater
kin

ponds
ac
Fr

Shallow aquifer
Aquiclude
Deep aquifer
Aquiclude
Pre-existing
Casing fault
Gas-bearing Induced
Methane
formation seismicity

Hydraulic
fractures

FIGURE 2.1
Schematic of a typical fracking structure.

strategies. About 25,000 wells a year undergo fracking in the United States.
Figure 2.1 shows a typical schematic drawing of a fracking structure.

Keystone Oil Pipeline

The Keystone Pipeline System is a 1700-mile, $7-billion pipeline system
to transport synthetic crude oil and diluted bitumen (“dilbit”) from the
Athabasca Oil Sands in northeastern Alberta, Canada to multiple destina-
tions in the United States, which include refineries in Illinois, the Cushing oil
distribution hub in Oklahoma, and proposed connections to refineries and
export terminals along the Gulf Coast of Texas (Guardian, 2012). It consists
of the operational “Keystone Pipeline” (Phase 1) and “Keystone-Cushing
Extension” (Phase 2), and two proposed Keystone XL pipeline expansion seg-
ments. After the Keystone XL pipeline segments are completed, American
crude oil would enter the XL pipelines at Baker, Montana and Cushing,
Oklahoma. The Keystone XL has faced lawsuits from oil refineries and criti-
cism from environmentalists and some members of the U.S. Congress. The
U.S. Department of State in 2010 extended the deadline for federal agencies
to decide if the pipeline is in the national interest, and in November 2011,
President Obama postponed the decision until 2013. The U.S. government
blocked the pipeline in early 2012, citing uncertainty over the Nebraska route,
which would travel above an aquifer that provides water to eight states. In
April 2012, Calgary-based TransCanada, the company planning the Keystone
XL oil pipeline, proposed a new route through Nebraska that would avoid the