Trans Mountain oil pipeline faces new construction issue months before start
BNN Bloomberg
Canada’s government-owned $31-billion oil pipeline to the Pacific Coast is facing a new construction challenge just a few months before its scheduled opening.
Trans Mountain is facing a “very challenging” task of drilling through hard rock in the Fraser Valley in British Columbia as it builds a pipeline to almost triple oil shipments from Alberta. The company has proposed a contingency plan to use a 30-inch pipeline instead of the planned 48-inch conduit should the difficulties persist into next month, according to a letter filed with the Canada Energy Regulator.
The project that has faced years of delays and a quadrupling of costs is scheduled to start operation by the end of the first quarter of 2024. In September, the company won regulatory approval to alter a section of the route because of similar drilling challenges.
That alteration was opposed by a local indigenous community called the Stk’emlúpsemc te Secwépemc Nation, which said the change posed a threat to culturally significant land. In an explanation made public Friday, the regulator said failing to alter the route would have caused a 10-month delay and result in a $2 billion loss of revenue for the company.
