From Northwest Coast Energy News – June 2, 2011
by Robin Rowland
In a story broken early Thursday, June 2, by the Vancouver website Tyee
and confirmed by Northwest Coast Energy news, another major energy
player, Kinder Morgan is proposing a second pipeline to carry bitumen
from the Alberta oil sands to the port of Kitimat.
The proposal
was part of a presentation to industry analysts during a conference on
March 24, 2011, with a PDF of the Power Point presentation posted on the
Kinder Morgan Website.
The likely controversial proposal was not picked up by the media until Tyee broke the story.
The
presentation says the proposed pipeline is one of several alternatives
proposed for the expansion of the existing Kinder Morgan Transmountain
Pipeline. In this scenario the pipeline to Kitimat would branch off
from the Transmountain Pipeline go through Prince George and then
apparently follow existing pipeline routes to Kitimat and not follow the
proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway route.
The Kinder Morgan presentation says the Transmountain pipeline branch to
Kitimat would cost $4 billion, compared to the $5,5 billion that
Enbridge has budgeted for the Northern Gateway project. The
Transmountain pipeline would have a capacity of 450 thousand barrels a
day compared to the Northern Gateway capacity of 550 thousand barrels a
day.
Tyee says:
A power point presentation
for investors by Ian Anderson, president of Kinder Morgan Canada Group,
provides a wealth of information that has not been widely shared with
the general public or local governments:
Tyee says Kinder Morgan is also asking the National Energy Board for a
immediate jump in the bitumen going through the port of Vancouver
They are also requesting to divert more Alberta crude and bitumen
capacity to the Westbridge tanker terminal in Burrard Inlet and away
from existing land-based refineries in B.C. and Washington. If approved,
this would immediately expand crude capacity through Vancouver from
52,000 bpd to 79,000 bpd — an increase of more than 50 per cent
.
According to the documents seen by Tyee, the Vancouver end of the
project would require the dredging of Second Narrows to allow large
supertankers to visit the port. Tanker traffic in Vancouver would
increase, Tyee says
Tanker transits through Vancouver will increase to 216 per year in 2016, up from 71 in 2010 and 22 in 2005.
All this is being propelled by increasing energy demand from China. It
also appears that Kinder Morgan wants to increase the Vancouver capacity
because of the delays in the Enbridge Northern Gateway project, which
means that Alberta oil patch is seeking new ways to get the raw bitumen
to China.
Links:
Kinder Morgan Canada presentation on the Kitimat pipeline and the Vancouver port expansion (PDF)
Kinder Morgan application to the National Energy Board (PDF))
Read original article