Kinder Morgan's prospects for twinning an oil pipeline to Burnaby are starting to shape up. The company announced Tuesday (Feb. 21) that it garnered strong commitments through an "open season" process to support a possible expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline.
Kinder Morgan's 1,150kilometre line runs oil from Alberta to Burnaby. The line, which is already twinned in some areas, can handle up to 300,000 barrels a day, but if it were fully expanded could go to a maximum daily capacity of 700,000 barrels.
The open season, which ran from Oct. 20 to Feb. 16, allowed Kinder Morgan to test customers' interest in using an expanded pipeline before proceeding. The open season was based on a 600,000 barrels per day capacity design.
"The response to our open season was very encouraging," said Ian Anderson, president of Kinder Morgan Canada. "The strong support received through this process will now allow us to complete initial project design and planning. We are looking forward to engaging in dialogue with First Nations, interested stakeholders and communities along the pipeline. The final decision on the proposed project will be known by the end of the first quarter of this year."
The company has not yet applied to the National Energy Board to expand, but the proposed project is expected to cost approximately $3.8 billion.
Company spokesperson Lexa Hobenshield said there should be more information available by March.
"At this point we don't have a proposed project size, we don't have an initial project design," she said.
The Trans Mountain pipeline system has been around for nearly six decades and supplies roughly 90 per cent of Lower Mainland gasoline.
