Page 5 - NorthAmOil Week 48

NorthAmOil COMMENTARY NorthAmOil
Line 3 replacement. The US portion of the pro- ject could still be brought online in 2020, though the timing is not certain following recent devel- opments. On October 1, state utility regulators in Minnesota ordered further study on the potential impact of oil spills in the Lake Supe- rior watershed. The replacement would use pipe made from thicker, stronger steel, which is protected by an improved exterior coating, and Enbridge maintains that it would be safer to use than the existing pipeline. But given public sentiment over major pipelines in recent years, it is unsurprising that Minnesota regulators are proceeding with caution, while environmental groups are continuing their efforts to challenge any such new projects.
The Minnesota Department of Commerce was given 60 days to submit its revised environ- mental impact statement (EIS) on the project, with the deadline passing last week. Neither the Minnesota Department of Commerce nor the state’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) have reported any updates on the revised EIS as yet, and it is not known whether it has been submitted.
Nonetheless, the completion of the Canadian portion of the Line 3 replacement, coupled with other efforts to boost takeaway capacity, has resulted in a growing sense of cautious optimism among the country’s producers.
“It is incredibly important,” Enbridge’s vice-president of Line 3 project execution, Leo Golden, was quoted by CBC News as saying about the start-up of the Canadian portion of the pipeline. “It is bringing into service over 1,000km of new pipeline that is improving the safety of our operating facilities across the Prairies.”
This sense of optimism is set to grow further still, on news that construction is ready to begin on the long-delayed Trans Mountain expansion project from Alberta to the British Columbia coast. Large-diameter pipes for the project have been stockpiled at various points along the Trans Mountain pipeline’s path since the summer. And the Financial Post has now reported that crews are preparing to start construction work on the pipeline in Alberta.
The newspaper quoted a Trans Mountain spokesperson, Ali Hounsell, as saying there would be “pipe on the ground” with the intention of putting “pipe in the ground before Christmas”.
This follows Financial Post reports in Novem- ber that the company had received more than half of the pipe needed for construction and was staging it at storage yards along the route. The company – currently owned by Canada’s federal government, which took the project over from Kinder Morgan last year – has also hired 2,200 workers in preparation for construction to begin.
Starting construction in BC is predicted to prove more challenging than proceeding in Alberta, which is considerably more support- ive of the energy industry. Nonetheless, some progress will be taken as a positive step for the project, which would almost triple capacity on the existing Trans Mountain pipeline to 890,000 bpd.
“I don’t think the sentiment was that starting construction in Alberta was the bottleneck,” a GMP FirstEnergy analyst, Michael Dunn, told the Financial Post. He added, however, that any work on the pipeline would be incrementally positive for Alberta’s producers, even as the industry awaits the start of construction in BC.™
Large-diameter pipes for the project have been stockpiled at various points along the Trans Mountain pipeline’s path since the summer.
The Line 3 replacement is the largest project Enbridge has ever undertaken.
Week 48 04•December•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m
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