Executives at South Bow Corp. say customers have been clamouring to ship more oil on the southern leg of its pipeline network.
Richard Prior, South Bow’s chief operating officer, says recent geopolitical turmoil has driven a rise in demand for more oil exports, including via the U.S. Gulf Coast.
South Bow operates the Keystone system that runs from eastern Alberta to refineries within the Midwest and the Texas coast.
Calgary-based South Bow Corp. operates roughly 4,900 kiolometres of pipelines from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Source: SouthBow.com
Average throughput on Keystone in the course of the first three months of 2026 was 616,000 barrels per day, with the U.S. Gulf Coast segment averaging about 709,000 barrels a day.
Prior says the Gulf Coast leg of Keystone can move greater than 800,000 barrels per day, but there is restricted ability to grow capability much further beyond that level.
South Bow is within the midst of weighing bids for a possible latest project called Prairie Connector, which might ship oilsands crude to the Canada-U.S. border and onto U.S. destinations.
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Prairie Connector could use dormant pipe that had been meant for the defunct Keystone XL expansion project, which was scuttled amid intense environmental and political opposition several years ago.
Keystone XL was pursued by TC Energy Corp., which spun off its oil pipeline business to form South Bow in 2024.
U.S. President Donald Trump recently granted a permit to a separate proposal by Bridger Pipeline LLC linking Wyoming to the Canada-
U.S. border. That pipeline could link up with Prairie Connector.
This represents a meaningful development within the permitting process for cross-border energy infrastructure and one which has understandably attracted its justifiable share of attention,” said South Bow CEO Bevin Wirzba.
“That said, we’re continuing to work diligently to make sure any project we advance is inside our risk preferences and that risks are allocated appropriately among the many parties best positioned to administer and mitigate them.”
So far as what form a possible partnership might take, Wirzba said, “We’re still baking the cake on a couple of elements of that.”
To be comfortable making a final investment decision on Prairie Connector, it could must nail down the “typical elements” like its contracting strategy, supply chain, procurement and value estimates, Wirzba said.
But it surely doesn’t end there.
“We want to be certain that we manage and mitigate any last-mile risk that might occur on the project in the longer term,” Wirzba said.
“We’re seeing great alignment among the many regulatory environment in each Canada and america, but we cannot expose our shareholders to risks that they can not bear, nor can we.”
Late Thursday, South Bow posted first-quarter net income of US$77 million, down from US$88 million in the course of the same period of 2025.
The profit amounted to 37 cents US per share versus a year-earlier 42 cents US.
South Bow, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported its revenue fell to US$491 million from US$498 million.
© 2026 The Canadian Press