Oil Flows East, Leaving an Oklahoma Pipeline Unusually Empty

  • Line from Midwest to Quebec to start by end of this year
  • Pipe to Cushing to have free space for first time since 2013
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A pipeline to America’s largest crude-oil hub is about to find itself in an unfamiliar position: not full.

One of the main pipelines that carries crude to Cushing, Oklahoma, will run at less than capacity in December for the first time in nearly two and a half years. The drop in supply coincides with the opening of a pipeline to Quebec, giving shippers the option of diverting some oil from the middle of the U.S.