Northern pipeline moving forward

Gordon Hoekstra
Prince George Citizen
Tuesday, July 5, 2005

Enbridge Inc. is set to announce this week it will start field work on its proposed $2.5-billion pipeline from the Alberta oil sands to B.C.'s northwest coast, the latest step in pushing the mega-project forward by the end of the decade.

"We're initiating what we believe is significant environmental, engineering and land work to support the proposed development of the Enbridge Gateway project," said D'Arcy Levesque, vice-president of public and government affairs for Enbridge.

While the project is still in the planning stage, Enbridge announced earlier this year it has reached a memorandum of understanding with PetroChina International Company Ltd. to co-operate on the development of the Gateway pipeline.

Enbridge is continuing negotiations with producers in the Alberta oil sands which it's hoping will lead to "commercial certainty" needed to allow the pipeline to be built, said Levesque.

Enbridge is competing with a rival proposal from Terasen Pipelines.

Both are meant to provide additional pipeline capacity, needed as crude production from Alberta's oil sands is expected to double by the end of the decade.

"We work very closely with the oil sands producers and we're very confident the Gateway is really the right expansion," said Levesque. "More than $55 billion in announced capital investment projects are either underway or planned to produce bitumen and synthetic crude from the oil sands."

Enbridge hopes to have commercial arrangements complete this year, putting it in position to have the pipeline in place by 2009 to early 2010.

Enbridge's proposal is to build a 1,200-kilometre pipeline to carry Alberta oil sands crude from Edmonton to Prince Rupert or Kitimat, where it would be loaded onto supertankers to be shipped to markets in Asia or the U.S.

It's expected the pipeline will follow existing rights of way, possibly along the Yellowhead Highway corridor, including through the Prince George area.

The company has chosen a northwestern route over a southerly route terminating in the Lower Mainland because that route posed more technical and environmental difficulties. As well, the Port of Vancouver was not capable of handling the largest oil tankers that would be the most efficient to carry crude to Asia.

The new pipeline would also require regulatory approval from Canada's National Energy Board, which would trigger a comprehensive environmental assessment that would likely include public hearings.

Levesque said Enbridge is now also considering building a second pipeline next to the crude line which would carry condensate, a product used to thin heavy oil for easier transport by pipeline. There's a shortage of condensate in Alberta, and the idea is for tankers to carry condensate from Asia and return with crude oil, explained Levesque.

The proposed pipeline would pass through the traditional territory of many First Nations in northern B.C.

Unlike Alberta, most B.C. bands have unresolved aboriginal land claims and are calling for more consultation and accommodation on industrial development and resource extraction.

Earlier this month, an aboriginal consultant for Enbridge delivered an overview of the project to the annual general assembly of the Northwest Treaty Tribal Nations in Terrace.

That community, 580 kilometres west of Prince George, is just inland from both Kitimat and Prince Rupert. The tribal group represents more than 50 First Nations in northern B.C.

Justa Monk, the tribal nation's eastern region executive chair, said aboriginal leaders were disappointed they didn't hear directly from senior Enbridge officials.

"Prove to us this is environmentally sound, prove to us what's going to happen if there's any spill with tankers and the line," said Monk, who is from the Tl'azt'en Nation northwest of Prince George.

"There also has to be a consultation and accommodation package," added Monk.

Levesque said Enbridge has already had considerable discussion with aboriginal stakeholders for the past two years in northern B.C. and Alberta.

That work will continue and expand, he said.

Levesque said with the start of field work, Enbridge will be mailing out a preliminary introduction to the project to all stakeholders, including municipalities.

The mail-out will include a proposed route map.

©Copyright 2005 Prince George Citizen