Canada’s Trans Mountain Pipeline Moves Toward Another Capacity Increase

Trans Mountain Corp. will hold another open season for the expanded pipeline that takes crude from Alberta to the western Canadian coast, Bloomberg has reported, seeking takers for 72,000 barrels daily in additional capacity.

The company operating the pipeline will boost its capacity by another 90,000 barrels daily soon by using drag reduction agents, its chief executive Mark Maki said, as quoted by the publication. The first open season for the pipeline is taking place right now. It launched in early April, and Maki said it would boost the portion of capacity under long-term contracts to 90% from 80% previously. Earlier, plans were to have the additional boost of capacity via chemical agents by the start of next year.

Reports about a further boost to the pipeline’s capacity first emerged last year, also citing CEO Maki, who said at the time Trans Mountain Corp. planned to use chemicals to make it possible to send more oil via the pipes to British Columbia.

That may not be the end of capacity expansion at TMX, however, with Maki also saying last year 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.

In March this year, Maki was quoted as saying that he expected Trans Mountain Corp. to secure full capacity amid the supply crunch caused by the war in the Middle East. There are also plans for a further capacity increase of 210,000 barrels daily as part of a larger Mainline Optimization Project, to be completed by the end of 2028. The previous timetable for that project’s completion featured 2030 or 2031 as the deadline.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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