TransCanada Corporation (USA) (TRP), Enbridge Inc (USA) (ENB) – Everything You Need to Know About Keystone XL: Why Other Countries Care

These partnerships could be crucial connections with the U.S. Gulf Coast and could help these countries maintain a certain amount of exports to the U.S. as Canadian crudes look to supplant them.

If Keystone XL is rejected
Other than a big sigh of relief from these countries, it is very likely that business as usual will continue for the Gulf Coast regarding refinery operations and import sources. Another thing to consider, though, is that both Venezuela’s and Mexico’s national oil companies have struggled to grow production in the past couple years. If this trend were to continue, it would more than likely mean prices for these types of crude would climb even higher, making the incentive to build a Keystone XL-type pipeline even greater.

What a Fool believes
Looking back on all the different aspects of the Keystone XL pipeline, there is much at stake for companies across the oil industry. For the U.S. and Canada, the upside benefits of the project being built are great, but the downside of it not being built is not an industry-killer like some claim it to be. Though, for certain countries the threat of losing an even greater amount of business from the U.S. could result in not only a need to find new customers, but also in the prices for their crude products dropping below what they once were.

This multi-part investigation into the Keystone XL is not intended to convince that it should or should not be built. Instead, I hope that the information presented gives the least biased view possible and offers every angle of the project it’s fair assessment so that the reader may decide. If you missed any previous part of this series, be sure to check back here at Fool.com for what the late, great Paul Harvey called “the rest of the story”.

The article Everything You Need to Know About Keystone XL: Why Other Countries Care originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Tyler Crowe.

Fool contributor Tyler Crowe has no position in any stocks mentioned. You can follow him at Fool.com under the handle TMFDirtyBird, on Google +, or on Twitter, @TylerCroweFool.The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned.

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