Rail

TransCanada Corp is in talks with customers about shipping Canadian crude to the United States by rail as an alternative route as its Keystone XL pipeline project that has been mired in political delays, Chief Executive Russ Girling said on Wednesday. "We are absolutely considering a rail option," Girling told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in New York. "Our customers have needed to wait for several years, so we're in discussions now with them over the rail option." The comments are the first to confirm growing speculation that TransCanada might use more costly railway shipments as a stopgap alternative to the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, whose approval has been delayed by the U.S. government. Girling said the firm was exploring shipping crude by rail from Hardisty in Canada, the main storage and pipeline hub, to Steele City, Nebraska, where it would flow into an existing pipeline to the Gulf refining hub. The Keystone XL pipeline would deliver crude from the oil sands of northern Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast. The Obama administration signaled last month that there would be further delays to the regulatory process, which requires approval from the State Department.