More pipelines in works to handle Alberta’s growing heavy oil load

 Another C$2.4 billion worth of pipelines are in the works to handle growing volumes of heavy oil in Alberta.

Enbridge is applying for environmental approval of two lines — one carrying 250,000 barrels per day of diluted bitumen and the other 70,000 bpd of diluent — to serve the Fort Hills oil sands project, operated by Petro-Canada, with UTS Energy and Teck Cominco as junior partners.

Subject to regulatory clearance, construction will start late in 2009 on the two pipelines, which will follow a common right-of-way, mostly along existing routes.

Separately, Pembina Pipeline Corp., with EnCana and Canadian Natural Resources as founding customers, is starting public consultation on its proposed C$400 million Nipisi and Mitsue pipeline systems in the Pelican lake area of west-central Alberta.

Nipisi will provide capacity of 100,000 bpd of blended heavy oil service for shipment to the Edmonton area. The Mitsue line will combine new and existing pipelines to carry 22,000 bpd of condensate as a diluent for heavy oil.

The facilities are due to come on stream by mid-2011 and each is expandable by about 50 percent of its current design capacity.

—Gary Park