Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Economic Impact of Keystone XL On The US
Economic Impact of Keystone XL On The US
Oil that will be piped to the US Gulf coast will actually used to serve
the foreign markets. Even TransCanada admits in their proposal “The
resultant increase in the price of heavy crude is estimated to provide
Propertyanofincrease
Suman S Ghosh
in annual revenue to the Canadian producing industry of
US $2 billion to US $3.9 billion.”
Do not copy 6:51:48 PM
Risk Assessment - Assumptions
Oil price, economic inefficiency and loss due to oil spill are
the major drivers of risk.
I have used the economic impact for high and low oil price as
the total spending due to increased utilization mentioned in
Perryman report.
For cost of Oil spillage I used the figure 750 million which is
expected historical cost for cleaning in case of oil spillage.
(Droitsch, Report: Keystone XL tar sands pipeline more of an
economic liability than benefit)
There is 100% chance of some kind of economic inefficiency.
Property of Suman
Economic S Ghosh
inefficiency is the loss on Estimated Economic
Do notImpact
copydue to inaccurate assumptions. 6:51:48 PM
Risk Assessment - Model
Economic Inefficiency 60%
Cumulative
Spending Inefficincy -Low Oil
(Billion $$) Probability Price Loss Probability
Normal Oil Price 100.144 .8 loss -60.084 100%
High Oil Price 221.305 .2
100% 50%
High Oil Spill Medium
-28.19
-60.084 -2819% -68.25 -28.19
25%
Low
0% -21.365
Low Inefficiency Level -61.425 -21.365
0% 50%
Low Oil Spill Medium
31.894
0 31.894 -68.25 31.894
25%
Low
38.719
Yes Oil Price? -61.425 38.719
0 20.272 25%
High
13.447
-75.075 13.447
100% 50%
High Oil Spill Historical
20.272
-132.783 20.272 -68.25 20.272
25%
Low
100% 27.097
High Inefficiency Level -61.425 27.097
Extent the Pipeline?
1 221.305 20.272 25%
20.272 High
146.23
-75.075 146.23
0% 50%
Low Oil Spill Historical
153.055
0 153.055 -68.25 153.055
no
Do not copy
0
6:51:48 PM
0 0
Risk Assessment - Results
Economic Probability of High Oil Price
Inefficiency 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
0% 31.894 44.0101 56.126 68.243 80.358 92.4745 104.5906 116.707 128.823 140.939 153.055
10% 21.88 32.784 43.689 54.593 65.498 76.402 87.307 98.211 109.116 120.02 130.925
20% 11.866 21.559 31.252 40.944 50.637 60.33 70.023 79.716 89.408 99.101 108.794
30% 1.852 10.333 18.814 27.295 35.777 44.258 52.739 61.22 69.701 78.185 86.663
40% 0 0 6.377 13.647 20.916 28.186 35.455 42.725 49.994 57.264 64.533
50% 0 0 0 0 6.055 12.113 18.1711 24.228 30.287 36.345 42.403
60% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.8872 5.733 10.58 15.426 20.272
70% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
80% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
90% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
100% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
200
0% 150
20%
Payout(Billion $$)
100 150-200
40%
50 100-150
Prob. High Oil 60% 0 50-100
Price
100%
Regression Statistics
Multiple R 0.227787711
R Square = 5%
R Square 5%
Adjusted R Square 0.043713856
Standard Error
Observations
0.057772696
118
The Above relation is not correct.
ANOVA
df SS MS F Significance F
Regression 1 0.021188677 0.021188677 6.348316647 0.013109828
Residual 116 0.38717139 0.003337684
Total 117 0.408360068
Do not copy
X Variable 1 0.19440654 0.07715811 2.519586602 0.013109828 0.041585186 0.347227894 0.041585186 0.347227894
6:51:50 PM
Results & Discussion - Benefits
Benefits Level
Economic Benefit during the construction work- Although the spending and output figures are acknowledged
Direct, indirect and induced spending of $20.931 by other stakeholders the job figures are doubtful.
Economic benefit due to increased capacity As I showed in previous section there is no correlation
utilization of the Gulf Coast refineries - $100.144 between Heavy Crude differential and Capacity utilization of
billion in total spending, $29.048 billion in output, the Gulf refineries. So, the claimed economic effect is not
Value creation through easy transport of Bakken This is for sure an positive impact but the economics is not
Energy security for the US Although virtually Keystone XL creates some energy
Oil Price increase- according to Washington Post US is already suffering from high oil prices. Any price
the oil prices will increase by $6 a barrel and increase will be detrimental for the US economy.
Economic Effect of
Keystone Project on the US
An Academic Exercise
This report is prepared to discuss the cost benefit analysis for Keystone XL
project to understand the potential effect of the pipeline on the US
economy. This is totally an academic analysis based on publicly available
data from a neutral standing.
Page 1 of 18
Analysis .................................................................................................................. 8
Risk Assessment:............................................................................................... 11
Appendix - 1 ......................................................................................................... 15
Exhibit-1............................................................................................................... 16
Exhibit-2............................................................................................................... 17
Page 2 of 18
State to extend its Keystone Pipeline to Gulf of Mexico. The Keystone pipeline became
operational in June’2010 and is 3,456 Km long. It connects the Athabasca Oil Sands
States and extend to delivery points in Nederland and Moore Junction, Texas. There
would be some delivery points at Curshing, Okhlaoma. Many other U.S pipelines and
systems will get access to the delivery points. According to market conditions the
Page 3 of 18
sand industry. But there are many reasons it is important to the US. Many issues came
up while discussing should the US Department of State accept or reject the project (the
project was rejected by Obama administration in January 2012 but open to alternative
Canadian Oil Sands: Fig. 2: US Crude Production, Import & Demand; Source :(The
Value of the Canadian Oil Sands: An Assessment of the Keystone Proposal to, 2010)
suffering from continues shrinking job figures. There is some controversy over
the actual job figures. I will discuss about that in the ‘Economic Impact’ part of
this report.
Page 4 of 18
significant and gives the current economic downturn it will be an economic boost
- Many of the current discussions on the pipeline issue do not consider the
suffering the US heavy oil refineries which will be benefitted if the pipeline is
made.
Assessment, 2011)
Economic impact is the positive or negative effect of an event on the financial well being
Do not copy
activities generated by a project or development. For example a new plant in a
locality pays
employees $100,000, purchases $300,000 from the local suppliers and pays a
property tax of $50,000, and then the direct impact of the plant on the local economy
is $450,000.
2. Indirect impacts are the production, employment and income changes in other
3. Induced effects are due to the increased consumption level of the locality due to
For practical uses the indirect and induced effects are estimated using multipliers. Let’s
say multiplier for a specific locality is 2.5, so and $100,000 direct investment will create
Related Literature
Two of the most important and highlighted studies on Keystone XL are “The Impact of
Page 6 of 18
estimate the economic impact. The basic modeling technique employed in this study is
various goods and services (known as resources or inputs) required to produce one unit
(a dollar’s worth) of output for a given sector is produced. The base information is then
rounds of activity involved in the overall production process. (THE PERRYMAN GROUP, 2010)
The major findings are - Direct, indirect and induced spending of $20.931 billion, $9.605
billion in output and 118, 935 person years of employment due to the construction and
development work. The report also accounts for the savings stemming from permanent
increase in stable oil supplies. The savings under “normal” oil price assumptions
(equivalent to the average for all of 2007) is $100.144 billion in total spending, $29.048
billion in output, and 250,348 permanent jobs. In case of high-price (costs per barrel
reach the peak levels observed in the summer of 2008) is $221.305 billion in spending,
Although the report talks about savings from permanent source of Crude it does not
Cornel report majorly analyzed the claims of job creation by Keystone XL project. It
denies the number of direct employment. The report also introduces environment
effects. The report also points out that direct investment on the construction is much
Page 7 of 18
construction and development work will be much less than claimed by Perryman
Groups report. Also, Cornels report claims that there can be loss of jobs due to the
pipeline. (Pipe dreams? Jobs Gained, Jobs Lost by the Construction of Keystone XL, 2011)
Analysis
Even if we accept claims in Cornels report estimated economic effect of the Pipeline
extension is not only from the construction work. Major source of economic effect (83%)
is the savings which will arise due to the pipeline extension. In this part we will try to
the Canadian Oil Sands: An Assessment of the Keystone Proposal to, 2010) which describes the
sources:
US is increasing
continually. The US is
2. Mexico. Heavy crude oil from these countries gets processed in the plants in
southern states (PADD III). Therefore facilities in this area (56 plants) are suited for
Page 8 of 18
decreased during 2008, the plants in PADD III became underutilized. As this plants
call for high investment, Break Even Utilization is high. Less capacity utilization eats
away the profit margin from existing production. Decrease is supply drove down the
Heavy Crude discount which is the difference of prices at which the heavy and light
crude is sold, which in turn decreased the profitability of Heavy crude conversion.
Expecting future demand Energy companies made huge investment in the Golden
Age (2005-2008) which is increasing the refinery capacity incrementally. As the Fig.
Extension of Keystone Pipeline will make possible for Canadian Heavy Oil to reach
expansion project has the potential to link light-sweet Bakken crude from the
Williston Basin (North Dakota, Montana, and Saskatchewan) could be send to the
refineries of Gulf for the first time. As the production of Bakeen oil is increasing
Page 9 of 18
Risks of Keystone-XL:
Aquifers of Nebraska:
The proposed Keystone XL pipeline would go over the sand hills of Nebraska. This
poses a big environmental risk. The biggest aquifer of world which supplies 78% of
the region’s public water, 83% of irrigation water in Nebraska and 30% of water
used in the U.S. for irrigation and agriculture. The soil of thee sand hill is loose and
porous further increasing the chances of mixing of oil with water in case of any
pipeline accident. This is one of the biggest reason why the US government has
CO2 Emission:
processing, disturbance of mined land, and impacts on wildlife and water quality.
The amount of emission is significantly higher than the conventional light oils. Also,
bitumen in oil sands cannot be pumped from a conventional well, the sand must be
mined, and usually using strip mining or open pit techniques, or the oil can be
amounts of water and natural gas which adds to the environment footprint.
Page 10 of 18
1. The refineries in the US Gulf coast are not exactly ready for processing Bitumen.
2. Oil that will be piped to the US Gulf coast will actually used to serve the foreign
markets. Also, these refineries produce more diesel than gas. So, there will be
US $2 billion to the US $3.9 billion.” (Parfomak, Nerurkar, Luther, & Vann, 2012)
Gas price increase can severely affect the already suffering the US economy.
Risk Assessment:
Please refer to ‘Exhibit-1’. I have assumed that
a. Oil price, economic inefficiency and loss due to oil spill are the major
drivers of risk.
b. I have used the economic impact for high and low oil price as the total
c. For cost of Oil spillage I used the figure 750 million which is expected
historical cost for cleaning in case of oil spillage. (Droitsch, Report: Keystone
Page 11 of 18
inaccurate assumptions.
Refer to Exhibit-1 (Table-2) we can see that if the Economic Inefficiency is more
than 70%, Payoff will be negative or Zero whatever the Probability of High Oil Price
is. In our case Economic Efficiency depends upon the assumed relation between the
Heavy Crude Differential and Capacity utilization of the Refineries. Let us review the
argument closely–
Supply of bitumen to the refineries of Gulf of Mexico will decrease the price of price
of heavy crude and increase the Heavy Crude differential which in turn will increase
The above statement will be true when the capacity utilization is a function of Heavy
Crude differential. To verify this postulation I calculated the Heavy Crude differential
variable the results are as Exhibit-2. The R-Square is only 5%. It shows that there is
Page 12 of 18
Economic Benefit during the construction Although the spending and output figures are
work- Direct, indirect and induced acknowledged by other stakeholders the job
employment
capacity utilization of the Gulf Coast correlation between Heavy Crude differential
refineries - $100.144 billion in total and Capacity utilization of the Gulf refineries.
spending, $29.048 billion in output, and So, the claimed economic effect is not
Value creation through easy transport of This is for sure a positive impact but the
import.
Page 13 of 18
Oil Price increase- according to US is already suffering from high oil prices. Any
Washington Post the oil prices will price increase will be detrimental for the US
TransCanada. On the other side the potential risks of High Oil prices will have
considered this project is less beneficial for the US than the risk. But if we also
consider US- Canada relations and political instability in the major oil producing
My recommendations:
1. The economic benefit from Keystone will not be very significant. The Net
Midwest to Gulf for Heavy oils. But the project should be undertaken
3. Invest in Algae & other Bio fuel development. Bio- Fuels can be produced
emission.
Appendix - 1
Heavy Crude Differential is the percentage discount of the Heavy Crude in relation
(Price of ‘Light light Louisiana sweet’ crude – Maya Heavy Crude Price) / Price of LLS
Page 15 of 18
10%
Loss due to inefficiacy -HighOil Price Probability Pipe Spills Cost Probability
Loss -132.783 100% Big 100.1 -75.075 0.25
Mediaum 91 -68.25 0.5
Small 81.9 -61.425 0.25
25%
High
-35.015
-75.075 -35.015
100% 50%
High Oil Spill Medium
-28.19
-60.084 -2819% -68.25 -28.19
25%
Low
0% -21.365
Low Inefficiency Level -61.425 -21.365
0% 50%
Low Oil Spill Medium
31.894
0 31.894 -68.25 31.894
25%
Low
38.719
Yes Oil Price? -61.425 38.719
0 20.272 25%
High
13.447
-75.075 13.447
100% 50%
High Oil Spill Historical
20.272
-132.783 20.272 -68.25 20.272
25%
Low
100% 27.097
High Inefficiency Level -61.425 27.097
Extent the Pipeline?
1 221.305 20.272 25%
20.272 High
146.23
-75.075 146.23
0% 50%
Low Oil Spill Historical
153.055
0 153.055 -68.25 153.055
25%
Low
159.88
-61.425 159.88
no
0
0 0
Page 16 of 18
Exhibit-2
SUMMARY OUTPUT
Regression Statistics
Multiple R 0.227787711
R Square 5%
Adjusted R Square 0.043713856
Standard Error 0.057772696
Observations 118
ANOVA
df SS MS F Significance F
Regression 1 0.021188677 0.021188677 6.348316647 0.013109828
Residual 116 0.38717139 0.003337684
Total 117 0.408360068
Coefficients Standard Error t Stat P-value Lower 95% Upper 95% Lower 95.0% Upper 95.0%
Intercept 0.850574742 0.016297545 52.19036148 2.1147E-82 0.818295403 0.882854082 0.818295403 0.882854082
X Variable 1 0.19440654 0.07715811 2.519586602 0.013109828 0.041585186 0.347227894 0.041585186 0.347227894
Page 17 of 18
Droitsch, D. (Report: Keystone XL tar sands pipeline more of an economic liability than benefit, March
12). Retrieved April 08, 2012, from World Weather Post:
http://www.worldweatherpost.com/2012/03/12/report-keystone-xl-tar-sands-pipeline-more-of-an-
economic-liability-than-benefit/#.T4TYzKt8Dn0
Economic Impact Assessment. (2011, November 07). Retrieved March 2012, from Ontario: Ministry of
Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: http://www.reddi.gov.on.ca/guide_ecimpactassessment.htm
(2011). EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Proposed Keystone XL
Project. United States Department of State Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and
Scientific Affairs.
GROUP, T. P. (2010). The Impact of Developing the Keystone XLPipeline Project on Business Activity in the
US. Waco, Texas: THE PERRYMAN GROUP.
John R. Auers, P. (2010). U.S. Refining Industry Darkest before the Dawn? Turner Mason& Company.
Parfomak, P. W., Nerurkar, N., Luther, L., & Vann, A. (2012). Keystone XL Pipeline Project: Key Issues .
Congressional Research Service.
(2011). Pipe dreams? Jobs Gained, Jobs Lost by the Construction of Keystone XL. Cornell university global
labor institute.
Sinclair, P. (2012, March 8). Why Keystone will Raise Gas Prices. Retrieved March 22, 2012, from Climate
Crocks : http://climatecrocks.com/2012/03/08/why-keystone-will-raise-gas-prices/
(2010). The Value of the Canadian Oil Sands: An Assessment of the Keystone Proposal to. Washinton DC:
Energy Policy Research Foundation.
Page 18 of 18