Some Examples of Cancelled Pipelines and Energy Projects in Canada
The following are some examples of cancelled
pipeline and energy projects in Canada, that
illustrate the incoherence and contention in this
sector. In the oil sands alone, there are many in-situ
projects at various stages -- completed but not
brought into production, under construction, on
hold or cancelled.
Energy East Project Cancelled October 5, 2017
The Energy East pipeline owned by TransCanada was
a proposed oil pipeline in Canada. It would have
delivered diluted bitumen from Western Canada to
Eastern Canada, from receipt points in Alberta and
Saskatchewan to refineries and port terminals in
New Brunswick and possibly Quebec. It also would
have served to ship U.S. oil extracted by
hydraulic fracturing from the Bakken Formation
(now transported by rail).
The entire length would have been 4,600
kilometres, with approximately 70 per cent (3,000
kilometres) being existing pipeline that would
have been converted from carrying liquefied
natural gas to carrying diluted bitumen. The
pipeline route would have run from Alberta to New
Brunswick, crossing through Saskatchewan,
Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec. The project would
have had a capacity of 1.1 million barrels
(~200,000 tonnes) of crude oil per day. Irving Oil
had announced plans to build a new $300-million
terminal at its Canaport facility in Saint John to
export the oil delivered from the pipeline. The
Quebec government was a particularly vociferous
opponent.
Northern Gateway Project Cancelled 2016
Gitxsan protest against LNG approvals in northern
BC in 2014.
Company: Enbridge (creation of Imperial Oil --
1949)
The Northern Gateway project was first proposed
in 2002. It would have exported diluted bitumen
from Kitimat, BC, to Asian markets, which would
arrive via a pipeline from Alberta. Ship travel
from Kitimat to Asia is two days shorter than from
Vancouver. Enbridge signed a cooperation agreement
with PetroChina in 2005 to ensure the utilization
of pipeline capacity. PetroChina is now a major
investor/participant in LNG Canada.
In 2006, Enbridge delayed the project in favour
of accelerating new lines to the United States. Up
until its outright cancellation by Canada's
federal government in 2016, the project faced
multiple court challenges amid a lengthy
regulatory process, combining to delay its
advancement multiple times. In July of 2016 the
Federal Court of Appeal overturned the previous
approval of Northern Gateway, citing a lack of
meaningful consultations with many Indigenous
communities.
Mackenzie Gas Project Cancelled 2017
Inception: 2000. Companies: ConocoPhillips,
ExxonMobil, Aboriginal Pipeline Group.
Also known as the Mackenzie Valley
Pipeline/Mackenzie River Pipeline, this 1,200 km
project in northern Alberta was initially started
in the mid 1970s but was later scrapped after an
official government inquiry recommended a 10-year
moratorium on pipeline development.
The project was resurrected in 2004 with a new
proposal to transport natural gas to the Beaufort
Sea and abroad with supply coming from pipelines
in northern Alberta. In late 2010 the project was
approved by the National Energy Board only to have
its deadline of 2015 for the start of construction
pass without any construction beginning.
Eagle Spirit Pipeline
The Eagle Spirit Pipeline is a
$16-billion First Nations owned Canadian
pipeline proposed by Indigenous businessman
Calvin Helin, which would ship oil from Northern
Alberta to Prince Rupert, BC following a route
well north of that of Coastal GasLink. The group
filed a request last year with the National
Energy Board for guidance regarding its project
description requirements, an early step in the
regulatory process.
Teck Resources Proposal for Open-Pit Petroleum
Mine
Abandoned 2020
Petitions are delivered to Environment
Minister's office in North Vancouver, January
2020, opposing approval of Tech mines project.
In February 2020, Teck abandoned plans for
Frontier Mine -- a $20 billion open-pit petroleum
mine proposal -- 25 km south of Wood Buffalo
National Park and north of Fort McMurray in
northeast Alberta. In announcing the decision the
CEO hinted that the company was having trouble
finding investors for the project. He wrote in
part, "Global capital markets are changing rapidly
and investors and customers are increasingly
looking for jurisdictions to have a framework in
place that reconciles resource development and
climate change, in order to produce the cleanest
possible products. This does not yet exist here
today and, unfortunately, the growing debate
around this issue has placed Frontier and our
company squarely at the nexus of much broader
issues that need to be resolved. In that context,
it is now evident that there is no constructive
path forward for the project. Questions about the
societal implications of energy development,
climate change and Indigenous rights are
critically important ones for Canada, its
provinces and Indigenous governments to work
through."
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 12 -
Article Link:
Some Examples of Cancelled Pipelines and Energy Projects in Canada
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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