The Financial Post reports in its Saturday, May 2, edition that the end point of TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline, at the western tip of a 77-kilometre segment that runs from Port Arthur, Tex., to the huge refineries lining the Houston ship channel, hardly resembles the flashpoint of the most intense controversy to hit Canada-United States relations since the softwood lumber dispute. The Post's Claudia Cattaneo writes that the project is still under construction. Later this year, the $300-million, 36-inch diameter pipeline and associated tank terminal will fill up with oil from TransCanada's recently completed Marketlink pipeline. When it does, the Houston Lateral -- as the final leg of XL is known -- will mark another successful leap in the Canadian oil sands industry's race to the refining market in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Despite the massive campaign to stall Canadian oil sands growth Canadian heavy oil is nevertheless making its way to Texas in significant and increasing spurts. Enbridge too is in the process of ramping up means of getting Alberta oil to Texas. TransCanada notes that in Port Arthur, there are four refineries. In Texas there are eight refineries.