Oil & Gas News - Pipelines
Enbridge’s Northern Gateway
The Northern Gateway is an Enbridge proposal to carry oil sands crude from the Edmonton, Alberta area to a new $6.5-billion supertanker terminal in Kitimat, B.C. to facilitate export to China. The twin pipelines would carry 520,000 barrels per day of Alberta oil sands bitumen in a westerly flow, and 193,000 barrels per day of condensate, used to thin petroleum products for pipeline transport, in an easterly flow (website). British Columbians and Albertans are divided on the project’s potential benefits and problems, and whether it should even go ahead (article).
In December 2013 the National Energy Board (NEB) review panel gave a conditional approval to the Northern Gateway pipeline project. The 209 conditions include environmental, safety and financial conditions such as determining how bitumen reacts in sea water (article).
Approval was later reversed in June 2016 by the Federal Court of Appeal in response to a legal challenge launched by eight British Columbia First Nations groups. The court concluded the federal government had failed to engage in meaningful consultation with First Nations.
Enbridge has 31 First Nations and Métis partners on board to build the pipeline project, but many Indigenous communities have also aggressively opposed the project, warning that the risks are too high that the project will lead to spills along its route in British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest or from tankers off the Pacific coast. (article)
Comment:
Should oil reach the west coast by pipeline, it will be offloaded onto supertankers and shipped to other countries. Opponents make several key points:
- Allowing Canadian oil to reach the world market will increase prices (by around $30 per barrel estimated) rather than decrease prices to Canadians
- Coastal areas are notoriously difficult to navigate and it is not a question of “if” but “when” a supertanker accident occurs
- Bitumen has been proven to sink in salt water (article), which could result in environmental disaster in the Pacific Ocean. Here is a video of rough sea in Greymouth, New Zealand.
UPDATE:
In 2016, the Canada rejected the Northern Gateway pipeline proposal under the government of Justin Trudeau.
News – Northern Gateway
More Information:
For more information, see British Columbia Forum on Tankers and Pipelines www.bcftp.ca. For opposition: www.holdthewall.ca
Concerned Professional Engineers (CPE) / www.facebook.com/Concernedpeng / @CPE_Canada
Return to AWARE-Ontario.ca Home Page
List of Ontario’s Issues
Disclaimer: This information has been compiled through private amateur research for the purpose of allowing the reader to make an informed and educated decision. However, while the information is believed to be reliable, accuracy cannot be guaranteed.
APPENDICES
https://awareontario.nfshost.com/AWARE-Ontario/Issues/Oilgas_Pipelines/OG_Enbridge/OG_Northern_Gateway/OG_Northern_Gateway.htm