Alberta is working to engage private backers for a new pipeline to ship about 1 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude from Canada’s oil-producing province to British Columbia on the West Coast, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has said.
The pipeline would run from the oil sands in Alberta to the Port of Prince Rupert on British Columbia’s northwest coast, and to international markets afterwards, according to the plans of the province.
Amid soured relations with its top trading partner under U.S. President Donald Trump, Canadian policymakers on both federal and provincial level have started to realize they may have too hastily scrapped over the past decade Alberta-to-coast pipeline projects that could have diversified Canada’s oil and gas exports.
Alberta has been a vocal supporter of increased pipeline takeaway capacity from the province and now looks to have more options to sell crude to non-U.S. customers.
The province is holding talks with major pipeline companies in Canada, hoping that a private investor would see the benefits of a new pipeline to carry crude from Alberta to the Pacific Coast, Alberta’s Premier Smith said at an industry event, as carried by Reuters.
The expanded Trans Mountain route is currently the only pipeline shipping Alberta’s landlocked crude for exports on tankers from the West Coast.
Alberta is sounding interest from private pipeline companies to form a consortium that would propose and build the new pipeline to the Port of Prince Rupert, Smith said, adding “Or if one (company) emerges as being a principal proponent, then we’ll be interested in talking to them too.”
Earlier this month, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney pledged that the federal government would work to fast-track major projects to make Canada an energy superpower.
Carney also met with Alberta’s Smith, who has been calling for years on the federal government to make Alberta’s energy more easily accessible for international markets and stop meddling with too much federal oversight in emissions reductions.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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