Enbridge to build oil pipeline

The project will handle output from the oilsands region

Vancouver Sun
November 03, 2007

CALGARY -- Enbridge Inc. said Friday it will build a $2-billion oil pipeline to handle tar-like bitumen from Petro-Canada's planned Fort Hills oilsands project.

Enbridge, the country's second-largest pipeline firm, said the 480-km line will be capable of carrying 250,000 barrels of diluted bitumen a day from the project site near Fort McMurray, Alta., southwest to an upgrader near Edmonton.

The project, to be complete by 2011, includes storage facilities and a second line to carry 70,000 barrels of diluent, an ultra-light form of oil that is blended with the heavy bitumen so it can flow in pipelines.

The line will run for part of its length along the right-of-way for Enbridge's Waupisoo pipeline, which is to be completed next year and will initially carry 350,000 barrels of oilsands crude from the Fort McMurray region to Edmonton.

The planned pipeline is one of a number in the works to handle the burgeoning output from the oilsands region, where production is expected to triple to three million barrels a day by 2015 as companies rush to exploit the largest oil reserves outside the Middle East.

Petro-Canada's $26-billion Fort Hills project is expected to produce 140,000 barrels a day of synthetic crude when its first phase is completed in 2011, rising to 280,000 barrels a day by 2015, when all phases are done.

Petro-Canada, which operates the project, has a 60-per-cent stake, with the the remaining 40 per cent split between UTS Energy Corp. and miner Teck Cominco.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007