Quanta Services Inc., Houston, said TransCanada Corp. has selected Price Gregory Services Inc., one of its operating units, to be part of a joint venture called MPS Constructors LLC that will build 1,179 miles of pipeline and related infrastructure from Hardisty, Alberta, to Steele City, Neb., as part of the TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline project. Jim O'Neil, president and CEO of Quanta Services, said in a press statement that the pipeline project is expected to directly create thousands of construction and manufacturing jobs in the United States, including at least 2,000 construction jobs for Quanta alone.
The project includes approximately 1,661-miles of 36-inch crude oil pipe that would begin at Hardisty, Alberta, and extend southeast through Saskatchewan, Mont., South Dakota and Nebraska. The pipeline would then incorporate the existing Keystone Pipeline Phase II through Nebraska and Kansas to serve markets at Cushing, Okla., before continuing through Oklahoma to a delivery point near existing terminals in Nederland, Texas, to serve the Port Arthur, Texas, marketplace. TransCanada said if construction of the pipeline begins early in 2012, it will be operational in the second half of 2013.