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NDP on TMX: We didn't want it. They built it. So let's use its full potential
NDP on TMX: We didn't want it. They built it. So let's use its full potential

Vancouver Sun

time03-06-2025

  • Business
  • Vancouver Sun

NDP on TMX: We didn't want it. They built it. So let's use its full potential

VICTORIA — The B.C. NDP government responded with mostly discouraging words this week to growing national speculation about a new pipeline to transport the country's oil to the West Coast. Prime Minister Mark Carney explored the idea of 'an oil pipeline to tidewater' with industry executives in Calgary on Sunday and with provincial and territorial leaders in Saskatoon on Monday. Ontario Premier Doug Ford described the pipeline as 'absolutely critical' to weaning Canada off excessive dependence on the U.S. market. Stay on top of the latest real estate news and home design trends. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Westcoast Homes will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith spoke of a 'grand bargain' to deliver a 'million-barrel-a-day pipeline to the northwest B.C. coast' and '$20 billion a year in revenues' to government coffers. Then there were the comments of B.C. deputy premier Niki Sharma, who represented Premier David Eby at the Saskatchewan meeting. Asked point blank if the New Democrats would be 'OK with fast-tracking' a pipeline to transport Alberta bitumen to Prince Rupert or Kitimat, Sharma replied: 'Well, you know what, at this stage, you've heard the premier say — we have a difference of opinion about whether or not a bitumen pipeline should go in … the northern part of the province.' Besides, said Sharma: 'There's no (pipeline) proponent at this time, there's no project that is really there to look at. Let's focus on those projects that are ready, with strong investment and alignment.' She's right that there is no current proposal for such a pipeline. One may be forthcoming after Carney's meeting with industry executives and Smith's lobbying on carbon capture projects in Alberta. In a followup statement, Sharma added: 'We are focusing on these shovel-ready projects, not theoretical projects with no proponents. There is also an existing, underused pipeline that Canadian taxpayers paid $34 billion for, with capacity to spare. She meant the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion or TMX, which the New Democrats vowed to fight 'with every tool in the tool box' and failed to stop. Eby also made a disparaging reference to TMX at the recent conference of Western premiers. 'That pipeline is not at full capacity right now,' said Eby. 'Why wouldn't we ensure that that public infrastructure was fully used first before dividing ourselves on a project where there is no proponent.' Eby and Sharma exaggerate the degree to which the TMX is 'underused … with capacity to spare' after one year of operation. The Canadian Energy Regulator reports that the line has operated at about 80 per cent of its 890,000 barrel-per-day capacity since coming online in May 2024. Moreover, the performance improved in the first quarter of this year. 'The pipeline ran at about 85 per cent capacity during the three-month period ending in March,' Chris Varcoe reported in the Calgary Herald this week. The Globe and Mail's Emma Garney further reported that the line 'hit a high of 90 per cent' in March. The demand is such that Trans Mountain has already begun test work to boost capacity by up to 10 per cent by the end of 2026. A longer-term project would add pumping stations to boost it to 1.14 million barrels a day, later in the decade. So much for the B.C. NDP notion that the $34 billion pipeline is languishing through insufficient use. But rather than consult the country's energy regulator or the national newspapers, perhaps Eby and Sharma were taking their lead from Steven Guilbeault. Guilbeault served as environment minister in the Justin Trudeau Liberal government, where he flourished as a fan of carbon taxation and an opponent of fossil fuel expansion. Carney reassigned him to the Canadian Heritage Department at about the same time as the PM reduced the carbon tax to zero and began talking up the need to expand resource production. It didn't stop the new heritage minister from wandering outside his lane last month to announce that Canada has no need of more pipelines because TMX was operating at '40 per cent capacity' and the world was approaching 'peak oil production.' In the first instance, Guilbeault clearly didn't know what he was talking about and in the second, there's much room to debate about when peak oil will be reached. Still, there is a capacity issue regarding the TMX terminal in Burnaby, though not one that involves the pipeline. The terminal is already busy with tankers, having loaded some 741 in the first quarter of the year at a rate that fell just short of one a day in March. But tankers are unable to load fully because of the risk of grounding in Burrard Inlet. The New Democrats have recognized the limitation and come out in support of a federal proposal to dredge Burrard Inlet to a depth that full tankers can traverse. Leading the call is Energy Minister Adrian Dix. As NDP leader, Dix's snap decision to oppose TMX in the midst of the 2013 election campaign contributed to his loss to Christy Clark. Now that the line is running, Dix supports maximizing its use. 'We built it. We paid for it. We should use it,' he says, taking a realistic view of a project that cost him much. vpalmer@

China emerging as top customer for Canadian oil shipped via Trans Mountain Pipeline
China emerging as top customer for Canadian oil shipped via Trans Mountain Pipeline

CBC

time16-05-2025

  • Business
  • CBC

China emerging as top customer for Canadian oil shipped via Trans Mountain Pipeline

China has emerged as the top customer for Canadian oil shipped on the expanded Trans Mountain Pipeline, ship tracking data shows, as a U.S. trade war has shifted crude flows in the year since the pipeline started operating. China's new interest in Canadian oil comes as U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war has strained relations between longtime allies Washington and Ottawa. It also reflects the impact of U.S. sanctions on crude from countries like Russia and Venezuela. Canada is the world's fourth-largest oil producer, but its main oil-producing province of Alberta is landlocked with limited access to tidewater ports. That means the bulk of Canadian oil — about four million barrels per day or 90 per cent — is exported to the U.S. via pipelines that run north-south. The $34-billion Trans Mountain Pipeline carries oil to the Pacific Coast where it can be loaded onto tankers for export. The expansion, which began operations on May 1, 2024, tripled the pipeline's capacity to 890,000 barrels per day and opened opportunities for Canadian oil along the U.S. West Coast and in Asian markets. Canada seeks to diversify exports While oil is currently exempt from U.S. tariffs, Canada has sought to diversify its exports due to brief U.S. duties on its crude and Trump's threats to annex the country. Canada shipped about 207,000 barrels per day (bpd) on average to China since the Trans Mountain expansion ramped up to full operations in June last year, ship tracking data on Kpler showed. That was a huge increase from an average of about 7,000 bpd in the decade to 2023. The U.S. took about 173,000 bpd from the pipeline in the same period. China's top spot as the TMX buyer defies some early expectations that the U.S. would be the biggest buyer of crude shipped via the pipeline, which is owned by the Canadian government. Many expected its barrels to land on the West Coast versus Asia, which has access to cheaper Russian oil. However, Trump's protectionist policies have in recent months made Canada more attractive to Chinese buyers, said Philippe Rheault, director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta. China has also been reluctant to be over-reliant on Russian energy supplies, Rheault said. "A lot of China's refineries are also mindful of U.S. sanctions, and so have been trying to diversify away from oil from Venezuela and other places," he said. Shifting flows In the year since the pipeline's expansion, Canadian exports of crude to countries other than the U.S. rose nearly 60 per cent to an annual record of about 183,000 bpd in 2024, according to Statistics Canada. Other nations taking Canadian crude include South Korea, Japan, India, Brunei and Taiwan, ship tracking data showed. In recent months, several Canadian politicians have called for new pipelines to coastal export terminals to reduce dependency on the U.S. But regulatory, financial and political hurdles continue to stifle that development. TMX was about 77 per cent full on average in 2024, according to documents it filed with the Canada Energy Regulator, below the 83 per cent the company forecast, in part due to the high tolls the operator has been charging to make up for cost overruns during construction. The pipeline is expected to be 84 per cent full this year, and ramp up to 92 per cent in 2027. Its operator, Trans Mountain Corp, has said it is looking at expansion projects that could add between 200,000 and 300,000 bpd of capacity to the system. Given China's increased desire to find new, stable supplies of crude, the bulk of any additional capacity on TMX is likely to go to Asia rather than the U.S. West Coast, said Skip York, chief energy strategist with Turner, Mason & Company.

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