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July 2014

Vol. 19, No. 30 Week of July 27, 2014

Kinder Morgan unfazed by delay

Trans Mountain expansion review rolled into 2016 to allow time for assessment of proposal to change routing through City of Burnaby

Gary Park

For Petroleum News

Kinder Morgan has agreed to a seven-month delay in a scheduled public review of its application to triple capacity on the Trans Mountain pipeline, saying the extra wait will not affect the commercial viability of the C$5.4 billion adding of 590,000 barrels per day of capacity to the system.

Ian Anderson, president of the company’s Canadian unit, told reporters that “politics are going to be politics. We will always be in some form of political cycle and we can’t avoid that. We are proceeding to deal with the National Energy Board.”

He said in a statement that the additional time “provides interveners and others more time to review our proposal and ensures we can fully explore the route we are proposing after listening to the people of Burnaby,” while conducting the necessary engineering and environmental studies.

The NEB’s decision to extend its deadline for sending a final recommendation to the Canadian government cabinet to Jan. 25, 2016, was made to allow time for an assessment of Kinder Morgan’s proposal to change the pipeline routing through the City of Burnaby in Metro Vancouver.

Bitumen exports the goal

Canada’s hopes of embarking on oil sands bitumen exports to Pacific Rim markets are pinned on the Trans Mountain expansion and Enbridge’s Northern Gateway proposal.

Under the revised timetable, oral hearings that were scheduled to have started in January 2015 will be delayed until July.

The Westridge Marine tanker-loading terminal is within Burnaby’s boundaries, along with the controversial expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline. The city has been unflinching in its opposition to the project.

A spokesman for the NEB said the federal regulator requires a “number of different studies” to assess the revised application, including plans to drive the pipeline through a mountain within the city and reroute the pipeline by less than three miles.

The company said in documents filed with the NEB that its attempts over the past year to participate with the City of Burnaby to collect information on the rerouting have failed, with the city stating “it will not provide Trans Mountain with access or permits.”

If Burnaby continues to be uncooperative, the company said it will apply to the NEB for an order granting access to the information.

In documents filed with the NEB, the city said “the ‘engagement’ that Trans Mountain is requesting appears in some cases to constitute support or pre-approval by Burnaby,” while in other cases, city staff would effectively be helping the company meet its obligations to the NEB.

“Burnaby takes the position that now the hearing process is underway for the project, communications with Trans Mountain should take place transparently on the hearing record,” the filing said, adding Burnaby “is open to engagement with Trans Mountain through the NEB process. ...”

Burnaby cites route changes

Earlier, Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan said Kinder Morgan had made four changes to the pipeline’s proposed route, but had refused to answer many of the 1,500 questions Burnaby has submitted to the regulator.

“They expect us to continually adjust to Kinder Morgan’s proposals,” he said. “We’re saying ‘enough is enough,’” he said.

Kinder Morgan has until Dec. 1 to submit the required studies to the NEB. Interveners will then have until Feb. 3, 2015, to review and respond to that information.

Kennedy Stewart, the Burnaby representative in the Canadian Parliament through the left-wing New Democratic Party, said the NEB has “allowed Kinder Morgan to play fast and loose with the process.”

“My constituents have known for months the company has at least three pipeline routes in play through Burnaby and it looked like the NEB was going to let them get away with not specifying whose homes and properties would be affected.”

In the City of Vancouver, highly popular Mayor Gregor Robertson is facing a challenge this fall as he seeks a third term in office, which could turn the Trans Mountain project into a deciding campaign issue.

His opponent is career journalist and publisher Kirk LaPointe, who said that, if elected, he will take a “very responsible position” on the Trans Mountain plan that will “not preclude, as the mayor has, the process that is underway in order to identify and articulate the very necessary environmental and legal ramifications of the development.”






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