The Alberta government is exploring ways to encourage pipeline companies to increase capacity and increase the province’s oil and gas exports to the United States.
However, Prime Minister Daniel Smith has said the government is not interested in directly subsidizing cross-border pipeline projects and instead wants to find ways to de-risk potential private sector investment. said.
“We want to see a willingness to build ties with the United States and help bring more products into the United States,” Smith told reporters Monday at an event in Leduc County, Alta. ” he said.
“Probably to de-risk the project, we’ll need a U.S. partner, a U.S. pipeline company, to partner with us here,” she added.
“While we don’t believe that throwing government money at it is the best way to go, we do think there are other things that can be done to change the risk profile.”
Donald Trump’s nomination of Chris Wright, an oil and gas executive who denies the existence of the climate crisis, as secretary of energy, is the latest controversial move by the US president-elect.
Canada’s major oil and gas producing states are keen to expand pipeline access to the United States following Donald Trump’s presidential election victory.
Trump has been a vocal supporter of oil and gas in general.
During his first presidential term, President Trump supported TC Energy’s Keystone XL pipeline project. The project is a 1,900-kilometre (1,900-kilometre) crude oil pipeline that was supposed to carry oil from Alberta to the United States, but plans were scrapped when his successor, President Joe Biden, took office. , revoked the project’s permit for environmental reasons.
TC Energy is no longer the owner of the Keystone Pipeline Network, which has been spun off into a separate company called South Bow Corporation, but some industry watchers are questioning whether the project will be revived.
TC Energy CEO Francois Poirier said in an interview with The Canadian Press last week whether the Alberta government could force the Calgary-based pipeline company to reinstate Keystone XL or not. He said he is reaching out to see if there are other ways to increase oil and gas pipelines in Alberta. Export volume to the US
A Southbow spokesperson last week declined to say whether the company is interested in reviving the Keystone project, but said Southbow is “committed to shipping more Canadian crude to meet U.S. demand.” I support it.”
“In 2020, the Alberta government, led by former Premier Jason Kenney, agreed to invest approximately $1.5 billion in equity in the Keystone XL project to move the stalled pipeline project.
In recent years, new pipeline projects have become highly controversial. High-profile projects such as the Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion and the Coastal GasLink natural gas pipeline have been marred not only by budget overruns but also by environmental and indigenous protests.
But Smith said Monday there are many ways to increase Alberta’s oil and gas pipeline exports to the U.S., and there are ways beyond just throwing money at it.
“There are also many ways to expand exports using existing sites and access to existing pipelines, such as looping, compression, and twinning of existing pipeline lines,” she said.
“So we’re looking at all of those different options.”
Smith said the province’s goal is to give pipeline companies confidence that the expanded capacity will be met by increased oil production in Alberta.
Calgary-based TC Energy Corp. will sell a minority stake in a natural gas transmission network in Western Canada to a consortium of First Nations communities. The $1 billion deal is Canada’s largest Indigenous stock ownership agreement, the company said.
Thanks to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion that began earlier this year, Alberta’s 2024 year-to-date oil production is at record levels.
The project, which cost $34 billion to build, would triple the capacity of the existing Trans Mountain pipeline, adding 590,000 barrels of oil per day from Alberta to the west coast of British Columbia. Ta.
Analysts have suggested that Alberta’s oil production could add 100,000 to 300,000 barrels per day, with year-on-year increases continuing into 2025, and Smith previously said the province’s oil production would increase by 2050. He suggested that it could double by the time.
Earlier this month, Calgary-based Enbridge announced it had begun discussions with customers about expanding its mainline pipeline network to accommodate growing Canadian oil production.
Enbridge’s mainline system is the largest pipeline system in North America, transporting crude oil from western Canada to markets in eastern Canada and the Midwest.
The company emphasized that it is considering small-scale expansions that would add capacity along its existing pipeline network.
