(Adds quotes, trader reaction, details about projectcompletion, background)
By Kristen Hays
HOUSTON, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell Plc has put its 300,000 barrels per day Louisiana-to-Texas WestwardHo oil pipeline project on hold as newer pipelines have alreadyswamped the region with hundreds of thousands of barrels ofdomestic light sweet crude per day.
The company confirmed on Tuesday that it decided to delayconstruction on the pipeline to focus on securing morecommitments from shippers.
The line had been slated to start up in the third quarter of2015, but now the company estimates construction will wrap up in2017, spokeswoman Kimberly Windon said.
Shell has twice cut the proposed capacity from an initial900,000 bpd to 600,000 in 2011, and again to 300,000 bpd inmid-2012, after shippers submitted fewer binding commitments.
Westward Ho was proposed to move light sweet crude oil fromthe St. James, Louisiana, crude terminal to markets and pipelineconnections just across the Texas state line in Port Arthur andNederland.
The other pipelines servicing the region include TransCanadaCorp's 400,000 bpd MarketLink, which began moving crudeto Nederland in January this year from the once-clogged U.S.crude futures hub in Cushing, Oklahoma.
Enterprise Products Partners LP told regulatorsearlier this month that it would start up a new pipelineconnecting its terminal south of the Houston Ship Channel toNederland by Wednesday.
Nederland also is a delivery point along a 250,000 bpdsegment of Shell's reversed Houston-to-Houma, Louisiana,pipeline. Shell first proposed reversing that line to moveincreased Texas oil production to Louisiana refineries. WestwardHo was seen as restoring east-to-west movement of foreigncrudes, as well as Gulf of Mexico output to Texas markets.
However, Shell said Westward Ho remains viable despite thepause.
"Shell Pipeline believes there will be a need for additionalcrude transportation capacity along the route of the Westward Hopipeline in the near future and will continue to review theproject to ensure it is designed to provide the best value forShell and our customers," the company added. (Additional reporting by Catherine Ngai in New York. Editing byAndre Grenon)