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A U G U S T / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 9
Oil Patch Report
by Bruce Lantz
C
anada's Trans Mountain pipe-
line expansion (TMX) is going
ahead but many unknowns
remain, including what participation by
Indigenous groups will look like.
After considerable uncertainty, the fed
-
eral government approved the CAD $7.4
billion (all dollar figures Canadian) pipeline
twinning, which will run from Edmonton,
Alberta to Burnaby, British Columbia. The
original 1,150-kilometre pipeline was built
60 years ago. Construction is expected to
take up to 34 months, with oil to flow by
the second or third quarter of 2022.
The project will triple the capacity of
Trans Mountain, which carries crude oil
from Alberta's oil sands to the Pacific Coast
for export to markets overseas, and would
require production of another 590,000
barrels of oil for a total capacity of 890,000
barrels of oil per day.
The Canadian Energy Pipeline
Association (CEPA) estimates that the
project will inject $7.4 billion into the
Canadian economy, with federal and
provincial governments receiving $46.7
billion in new taxes and royalties from
construction and 20 years of operation (BC
will get $5.7 billion, Alberta $19.4 billion
and the rest of Canada $21.6 billion). The
project will create 15,000 construction
jobs and the equivalent of 37,000 direct,
indirect and induced jobs per year of
Indigenous groups eye TMX ownership; hurdles remain
