Six months on, what has the Trans Mountain pipeline project achieved and what's next?
CTV
Nearly six months after its opening, the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion is boosting Canada's energy sector as promised — but questions still linger about who will pay for the project's massive cost overruns.
Nearly six months after its opening, the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion is boosting Canada's energy sector as promised — but questions still linger about who will pay for the project's massive cost overruns.
By a variety of measures, the expensive and contentious pipeline project is bearing fruit as more Canadian oil reaches the West Coast to be shipped to export markets.
The Trans Mountain pipeline carries crude oil from Alberta to the B.C. coast. Its expansion, which opened May 1, tripled the capacity of the existing pipeline, adding an additional 590,000 barrels per day of shipping capability.
That's massive for an industry that has long been pipeline-constrained — the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion accounts for 17 per cent of the total pipeline export capacity available to Canadian crude oil shippers, according to the Canada Energy Regulator.
Its construction was a lengthy, costly process. The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion was first proposed in 2012 by Kinder Morgan Canada, which encountered so much environmental and Indigenous opposition that it ultimately threatened to scuttle the project.
The federal government purchased the pipeline for $4.5 billion in 2018 in an effort to get the project over the finish line. Once construction did start, the project ran into numerous delays and budget overruns, with its price tag spiralling over the course of four years to an eye-popping $34 billion.
But now that it is completed, Canadian oil production is smashing records, and economists say Trans Mountain will provide a lift to the GDP of both the province of Alberta and Canada as a whole this year.