{"id":81185,"date":"2024-05-08T08:05:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-08T08:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/resourcework2.devstudio.work\/?p=81185"},"modified":"2024-11-11T13:04:29","modified_gmt":"2024-11-11T13:04:29","slug":"tmx-a-short-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/resourcework2.devstudio.work\/?p=81185","title":{"rendered":"A short history of the Trans Mountain expansion’s troubled completion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Oil is already filling the expanded Trans Mountain oil pipeline between Alberta and its Westridge marine export terminal in Burnaby B.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And tankers will be able to load with oil in mid-May \u2014 71 years after the first shipment from the original pipeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new \u201cTMX\u201d expansion comes at an estimated cost of $34 billion \u2014 more than six times the initial estimate of $5.4 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday we landed the plane,\u201d Trans Mountain CEO Dawn Farrell told The Calgary Herald<\/em><\/a> on April, 30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel relieved and proud for Canada that we got something done that\u2019s pretty magnificent. . . . Despite everything that happened that possibly could have happened \u2014 a pipeline that needed to come from Edmonton and go through the mountains, and cross under rivers, and cross under highways and go up steep slopes.\u201d
John Ivison<\/a> in National Post<\/em> compared the completion of the project to the completion of  the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CPR, he wrote, is the kind of project that Canada no longer seems to be able to build.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cExcept, the completion of the TMX is a reminder that Canada is still capable of greatness in the face of almost insurmountable odds.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And he quoted our Stewart Muir: \u201cObjectively, the completion of this project has to be the most influential act of national building in my lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Muir noted that 28,246 people worked on the project, including more than 3,000 Indigenous Canadians and 2,604 women. At one point in 2022, 15,745 workers toiled to drive the pipeline through incredibly challenging, steep terrain in B.C.\u2019s Interior. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Muir told Business in Vancouver<\/em><\/a>: \u201cDespite controversies and cost overruns, the project as we have it today is financially healthy and will contribute positively to Canada\u2019s economic, environmental and energy strategies in the coming decades.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much to the horror of green activists and protesters, they (and you) are the owners \u2014 as the federal government has been the owner of record since May 29, 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister Trudeau\u2019s explanation<\/a>: Ottawa stepped in because Kinder Morgan \u201cwanted to throw up their hands and walk away,\u201d and his government wanted to make sure that Canadian oil could reach new markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Economist Trevor Tombe of the University of Calgary has positive answers<\/a> to the question of whether it was worth the high price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cWhoever or whatever is to blame for the delays and cost overruns, the answer to that question is clear: Yes!<\/em> And it\u2019s not even close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI say this for two main reasons. First, taxpayers are not on the hook in the way that most people think. Indeed, we may not lose any money on the purchase at all. Second, and more importantly, the pipeline\u2019s economic benefits to Canada far surpass its cost.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tombe added: \u201cLast month, the Bank of Canada predicted<\/a> a 0.25 percentage point increase in second-quarter growth from the new pipeline. That is no small move for a nearly $3 trillion economy. . . . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLooking ahead, the gains may be even larger.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the feds have long spoken of selling the pipeline, but that may take a while. Ottawa will soon begin collecting tolls on the oil running through the line, and that could amount to close to $4 billion a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As well, a number of First Nations are looking to obtain equity shares<\/a> in the pipeline, and thus benefits from it.  The federal government has promised them financial support so “they don’t have to risk any of their own money to participate.”
Indeed, many Indigenous leaders in the oilsands region are looking forward<\/a> to TMX’s opening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And as Indigenous commentator Joseph Quesnel<\/a> noted: \u201c’Now that the Trans Mountain expansion is finally completed, it will provide trans-generational benefits to First Nations involved. . . . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs of March 2023, the project had signed agreements with 81 Indigenous communities along the proposed route, worth $657 million, and the project has created over $4.8 billion in contracts with Indigenous businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pipeline expansion will triple the volume of the existing Trans Mountain pipe to 890,000 barrels of crude a day, the equivalent of 1,300 railcars. It consists of 980 kilometres of new pipe, 12 new pumping stations and 19 new storage tanks, mainly at the marine terminal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And oil producers in Alberta see much good news coming from it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cenovus Energy<\/a>, for one,  has its eyes set on a \u201cpretty vast market,\u201d that is expected to give oil producers access to better prices and newer markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alberta\u2019s Canadian Energy Centre\u00a0sees this<\/a>: \u2018We\u2019re going to be moving into a market where buyers are going to be competing to buy Canadian oil.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It adds: \u201cCustomers for the first shipments include refiners in China,<\/a> California<\/a> and India<\/a>, according to media reports.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShippers include all six members of the Pathways Alliance<\/a>, a group of companies representing 95 per cent of oil sands production that together plan to reduce emissions from operations by 22 megatonnes by 2030 on the way to net zero by 2050.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Cenovus forecast TMX will be Canada\u2019s last oil pipeline, oilsands production is rising so rapidly that some market players think Canada could again run out of pipeline space in less than two years, said RBN Energy analyst Martin King.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Originally it was thought TMX would give us a four- or five-year window,” King said. “It now looks like that window of spare capacity might actually be a lot smaller.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trans Mountain says it has capacity to load each month 34 Aframax tankers the biggest the Port of Vancouver can handle. These can carry 500,000 to 800,000 barrels of oil, but ship brokers and analysts have expressed concerns<\/a> about pilot and tug boat availability and loading restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a timeline of the project, expanded and updated from an initial timeline from <\/strong>Western Wheel<\/strong><\/a> news in Alberta: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n