GASCOYNE, N.D. (AP) — About 230 miles worth of heavy steel pipe in a vast laydown yard near Gascoyne hasn't been moved an inch since it was unloaded in 2011. Now, years later, pipe for the abandoned Keystone XL project may be deployed across hundreds of miles.

The green-coated pipe owned by TransCanada was brought in to carry tar sand oil, and the original route out of Alberta just misses the far corner of southwestern North Dakota as it comes down through Montana into South Dakota to connect to the mainline in Kansas.

The pipe is stacked near the BNSF Railway loop between the ghost town of Ga...