Trans Mountain Corp. is planning to invite oil producers to sign up for more capacity on its recently expanded pipeline, boosting said capacity by some 70,000 barrels daily with the application of drag-reducing substances.
Bloomberg reported the news, citing Trans Mountain Corp.’s chief executive, Mark Maki. The capacity boost should take place by the end of 2026 or early 2027, he added.
Maki first mentioned the possibility of a further capacity boost to the pipeline earlier this year, when he said that boost could be 75,000 barrels daily, to take place by 2027. In a potential first stage of a further capacity increase, the pipeline – currently owned by the Canadian federal government – could raise the volume throughput by using chemicals to help crude flow more easily, Maki explained at the time and has now reiterated.
That may not be the end of capacity expansion at TMX, however, with Maki also saying that by 2029, the pipeline could reach a total capacity of 1.2 million barrels daily.
The Trans Mountain pipeline finally completed its expansion—after years of delays and substantial cost overruns—and tripled the capacity of the original pipeline to 890,000 bpd from 300,000 bpd to carry crude from Alberta’s oil sands to British Columbia’s coast.
The expanded pipeline provides increased transportation capacity for Canadian producers to get their oil out of Alberta and into the Pacific Coast and then to the U.S. West Coast or Asian markets.
The current owner of Trans Mountain Corp. is the Canadian federal government, which was forced to step in and buy the project from Kinder Morgan as the latter threatened to kill it because of an environmental regulation offensive. Since then, it has been looking to sell it, but according to Maki, it would be better to wait until all expansions are completed, adding to the infrastructure’s value.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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