Oil execs to Obama: Partial Keystone pipeline approval isn’t enough

Top executives with Oklahoma-based oil-and-gas companies are greeting President Obama’s upcoming visit with a push for approval of the entire Keystone XL pipeline, not just the Oklahoma-to-Texas portion that the White House is pledging to expedite.

That message is part of a broader open letter to Obama from the heads of four prominent independent oil-and-gas companies: Continental Resources (whose CEO is heading Mitt Romney’s energy advisory team), Chesapeake Energy, Devon Energy and Sandridge Energy.

It comes ahead of Obama’s Thursday visit to Cushing, Okla., where he’s expected to tout plans to expedite federal permits for the southern part of TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone project.

But the administration in January rejected a cross-border permit for the bigger portion that would carry crude from Alberta’s oil sands projects (and some oil from production in North Dakota and Montana) to Gulf Coast refineries. It has invited TransCanada to reapply.

“Approval of the entire Keystone XL pipeline should happen now — not after the election. Yes, we are pleased TransCanada decided to build a critical section of the project from Cushing to the Gulf Coast. We note that this section doesn't require State Department approval. However, America's greatest benefit will come when we can transport oil from our best energy partner, Canada, and oil-rich North Dakota and Montana,” states the letter, published in The Oklahoman.

The letter is part of a wider clash between the White House and oil-and-gas companies that allege administration policies are too restrictive.

It attacks the White House push to repeal industry tax breaks and argues that planned environmental regulations (it doesn’t say which ones) could impose “increased costs and bureaucratic delays” that “will cripple America's energy production and halt the renaissance under way in our nation's steel, plastics, chemical and agricultural industries.”