Companies vie to build pipeline through B.C.
Oil sands production is growing, and producers need secondary markets. Is Asia the answer?
“We are planning on all the likely scenarios of oil sands development,” Reicher added. “At the end of the day, it will be up to the producers.” The major expansion will see added capacity of 350,000 to 400,000 bpd, he added. The costs: in the range of $2.3 billion for the northern route. The southern route would be built in two stages—TMx2 would be in service in 2008 and the last leg, TMx3, in 2011, at a cost of $2.6 billion.
Ports in the South, however, don’t have the capacity to handle very large crude carriers, as will be the case with deepwater access from Kitimat or Prince Rupert.
“We are reducing the risk by not building a new Greenfield line,” he noted. “The big advantage is having the existing right of way. That reduces the environmental footprint.” He added that Terasen holds an environmental advantage with the Trans Mountain right of way through both Jasper and Mount Robson National parks.
Environmental and aboriginal issues are big concerns for the development of a northern route, including a moratorium on tankers through the Queen Charlotte basin to access northern ports.
Levesque said Enbridge has been meeting with Aboriginal communities and conducting open houses along the pipeline route with good response.
Regardless of who builds a northern route, there will be resultant environmental challenges with Greenfield. Initially, the line would be built along the Yellowhead highway, through the mountains to Prince George, BC. “The most challenging part of the route is west of Prince George,” he notes. “West of [Prince George] there is nothing until you reach the coast.”
As for tanker safety: “Only tankers that are Ocean Certified to 2010 standards be will used,” said Levesque. That means the 320,000 DWT vessels will have to be double-hulled to service the $200-million Kitimat terminal. Enbridge expects to file regulatory application by the middle of next year for Gateway; public hearings will take place through 2007, with construction starting in 2008, and an in-service date of 2010.
With plans well laid, the ultimate judges of the competition between the operators will be the shippers. Commitment from producers makes pipeline projects fly and the winner of the West Coast race will be measured by toll rates, timing, and the mitigation of environmental risk.
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