Keystone Pipeline to Create Hundreds of Nebraska Jobs

Pipeline company TransCanada and oil giant ConocoPhillips will create 900 construction jobs with the launch of work on the Nebraska section of the Keystone Pipeline.

The $5.2 billion, 2,148-mile pipeline will carry a half million barrels of crude oil each day from Canada to refineries in the United States. The 215-mile Nebraska portion alone will cost $490 million to build.

Half of the workers are expected to be hired locally.

About 150 members of the state’s heavy equipment operators’ union should get six months work out of the project.

The pipeline will transport crude oil from Hardisty, Alberta to refineries in Wood River, Illinois and Patoka, Illinois.