OREANDA-NEWS. November 10, 2016. The election of Republican Donald Trump as US president will likely shift the tide that worked against large pipeline projects such as TransCanada's Keystone XL and the Dakota Access crude pipeline (DAPL) during the Obama administration.

During the campaign Trump was light on specifics with regard to energy infrastructure, other than to say he would take an industry-friendly approach. Such efforts should have an easier path as Republicans kept control of the House and the Senate in the election.

Opponents of Energy Transfer Partners' DAPL pipeline — which would move at least 470,000 b/d of crude from the Bakken fields in North Dakota to Patoka, Illinois — seem wary with the Trump win. The group leading protests against the project, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, today urged Obama to stop it before leaving office.

"We believe halting the Dakota Access pipeline presents a unique opportunity for President Obama to set a lasting and true legacy and respect the sovereignty and treaty rights of Standing Rock and tribal nations across America," said the group's chairman Dave Archambault.

In a rare statement yesterday, Energy Transfer said it was moving ahead with construction near a disputed DAPL site near Lake Oahe in North Dakota despite a request from the Obama administration to halt construction on a portion of the line. The company said it "remains confident" that it will receive the needed Army Corps easement for two strips of land adjacent to Lake Oahe "in a time frame that will not result in any significant delay" in proceeding with drilling under the lake.

Energy Transfer's stock jumped by more than 12pc today following the election.

Keystone XL, the 830,000 b/d crude pipeline from Alberta to Nebraska, was denied a presidential permit last year by Barack Obama, but Trump expressed support for the project, with the caveat the US should get a "significant piece of the profits." Existing trans-border pipelines do not have special revenue-sharing schemes with the government.

In reaction to the Trump election, TransCanada said today it is "fully committed" to building Keystone XL.

"We are evaluating ways to engage the new administration on the benefits, the jobs and the tax revenues this project brings to the table," TransCanada said. The company in June filed a \\$15bn Nafta claim against the US government over the rejection.

Reviving Keystone XL may not be quite as simple at keeping DAPL moving forward.

The NRDC environmental group, which strongly opposed Keystone XL, said that a Trump administration "would not be in a position to summarily approve the project." Any effort to revive the dead Keystone XL "would need to go through a process that we would forcefully challenge," the group said.