By Paul Vieira
Canada's main energy regulator said Wednesday it will hold
public hearings into Kinder Morgan Energy Partners L.P.'s planned
expansion of a pipeline that carries crude from the Alberta oil
sands to Canada's Pacific Coast.
The regulator plans to issue a recommendation on the project's
future no later than early July 2015.
The $5.4 billion Trans Mountain expansion is one of a number of
proposed projects that would ease the bottlenecks Canadian oil
producers face in getting their product to market. The expansion is
among the most eagerly awaited since it accesses a West Coast port
and would help Canada diversify its energy markets beyond the
U.S.
The National Energy Board said it would first hear evidence from
aboriginal groups, beginning this August. Public oral hearings will
start in January next year.
The regulator will make its assessment on the expansion "based
on the evidence presented before the board," Sarah Kiley, a
spokeswoman for the NEB, said during a conference call.
The regulator identified 12 issues its review would focus on,
among them the impact on the environment; effects on marine
shipping; aboriginal interests; and contingency planning for spills
and accidents.
Aboriginal and environmental groups have vowed to block the
expansion, citing the risk of a spill and the need to curb
development of the Alberta oil sands.
Kinder Morgan has said up to 34 oil tankers a month will be
needed to ship oil from the expanded pipeline, up from just six a
month currently. Much of that additional supply will be shipped to
markets in Asia.
In December, Kinder Morgan's Canadian unit filed a 15,000-page
application with the NEB to nearly triple the size of the Trans
Mountain line that already carries crude from the landlocked
Alberta oil sands to the Pacific Coast. The plan would boost the
capacity of the existing pipeline to 890,000 barrels from 300,000
barrels a day.
The expansion involves twinning, or building, 610 miles of new
pipeline along the existing 715-mile route between Edmonton in
Alberta and Burnaby, British Columbia, a suburban community just
outside Vancouver.
Energy producers such as Exxon Mobil Corp. affiliate Imperial
Oil Ltd., BP Canada Energy and Suncor Energy Inc., Canada's largest
energy company, are looking to the Trans Mountain expansion and
other proposed pipelines--most notably TransCanada Corp.'s Keystone
XL--to help ease the bottlenecks that have led to steep discounts
for Alberta oil on global markets.
The NEB said more than 2,100 individuals, organizations and
businesses applied for intervenor status at the Trans Mountain
hearings. It accepted 400 of those applications.
The NEB won't issue the final call on the pipeline. That rests
with the Canadian government, which will have three months from the
time of its recommendation, the regulator said, including a
decision to refer the ruling or any conditions back to the NEB for
reconsideration.
Write to Paul Vieira at paul.vieira@wsj.com
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