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In 2008, Kinder Morgan Canada added 75,000 barrels of capacity to its Trans Mountain pipeline from Edmonton to Vancouver at a cost of $750-million, which included 13 new pump stations, twinning the system through Jasper National Park in Alberta and Mount Robson Provincial Park in British Columbia.
It faced little opposition, completed its regulatory hearing within a week, and provided contracting and employment to the Aseniwuche Winewak and Simpcw First Nations and the Alberta Metis Zone IV community. When the project was completed, the Town of Jasper and the Village of Valemount thanked Kinder Morgan Canada for the opportunity.
Today, the company’s president, Ian Anderson, has cleared his deck and plans to dedicate the next five years of his career to a single goal — win support for and build a $5-billion expansion of the same pipeline, which has been in operation for 62 years. He is planning a campaign of unprecedented magnitude for his company, a unit of the Houston-based infrastructure giant, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners.
It’s a measure of how the Canadian pipeline business has changed as a result of activists targeting export pipelines to choke oil sands growth and rousing fear in affected communities about risks to the environment.
Don’t discount local interests
After watching closely the controversies that engulfed the proposed Keystone XL and Northern Gateway projects, Mr. Anderson, an accountant from Winnipeg who lived for extended periods in British Columbia, said he learned valuable lessons he plans to apply to his project: One is to not underestimate the voice and passion of local interests and to address their concerns first. Another is that each constituency has its own issues that need their own solutions rather than a one size fits all.
He also learned that the days of low-profile pipeline planning and operations are over.
“Historically, the pipeline industry has been fairly quiet, but it won’t be any more,” Mr. Anderson said in an interview. “It’s going to be about facts and about trying to dispel the myths.”
Kinder Morgan Canada announced plans two weeks ago to increase the capacity of the Trans Mountain pipeline to 850,000 barrels a day, from today’s 300,000 bpd.
The expansion won overwhelming support from oil sands producers, refiners and overseas customers. It’s a competitor of the delayed Keystone XL from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast, proposed by TransCanada Corp., and Northern Gateway from Edmonton to Kitimat, B.C., proposed by Enbridge Inc., which is in the midst of a federal regulatory review and is bitterly opposed by B.C.’s First Nations and environmental movement.
If Mr. Anderson succeeds, the expansion will be in operation in 2017 and represent the first building block toward the development of a new market for Canadian oil in Asia.
Bracing for opposition
But the pushback has already started. Opponents include Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan and the Tsleil-Waututh Nation near the Burrard Inlet. Vancouver council’s majority party and its park board are expected to formally oppose Kinder Morgan’s plan next week.
The main objection is that an increase in tanker traffic in Vancouver’s harbour increases the chances of an oil spill, threatening the city’s green image and its tourism industry.
For the rest of this article, please go to the National Post website: http://business.financialpost.com/2012/04/27/transmountain-same-pipeline-new-realities/?__lsa=4abfde00