Canada: US report on joint oil pipeline encouraging

Canadian Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said Friday he was "encouraged" by a U.S. government report that assesses the environment impact of a pipeline that will ship crude oil from Canada to the United States. "The U.S. government has been reviewing the project for over five years,"Oliver said, referring to the Keystone XL pipeline, which will transport crude oil from the Canadian province of Alberta to the U.S. state of Nebraska, where the oil would be shipped to refineries in Texas. "We await a timely decision (from the United States) on this project," he added. The U.S. State Department's report concluded that the project would not result in significant greenhouse gas emissions, signaling a step toward a final approval from U.S. President Barack Obama.