New oil and gas pipeline projects in Canada need changes in legislation, pipeline major Enbridge has said, noting shortened approval times would be much appreciated.
The company was commenting on a bill proposed by Mark Carney’s government that envisages just that: faster environmental and other reviews to accelerate the time from pitch to construction. Dubbed Bill C-5, the piece of proposed legislation aims to speed up the buildout of infrastructure—including oil and gas pipelines.
“We will be there to build what is needed for our shippers, for Alberta and for Canada – that’s our job, our mission as a company – but only when the conditions make sense and the right framework is in place,” Enbridge told Bloomberg in response to a question about new energy infrastructure.
Enbridge is considering raising the crude shipment capacity from Canada to the United States via the pipeline that could boost oil flows by 200,000 barrels per day, the company told Bloomberg earlier this week. The pipeline, if built, would be linked to Enbridge’s Mainline system, the publication reported.
The mainline system handles more than 3 million barrels a day of crude oil and liquids from Western Canada to the demand markets in the United States. Overall, Enbridge moves 30% of the crude oil produced in North America, for 65% of all U.S.-bound Canadian oil exports, 40% of U.S. oil imports, and about 25% of North American oil exports.
Alberta’s leadership is on board with new pipelines, too. Premier Danielle Smith said this week 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. 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.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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