Shipbroker hails Enbridge plans

A veteran London-based shipbroker has painted a vivid picture of the worldwide economic benefits of exporting crude from Western Canada to the California coast and Asia.

E.A. Gibson Shipbrokers, established in 1898, said in a report that Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project alone would generate demand for 50 Very Large Crude Carriers (2 million barrels), 120 Suezmax tankers (1 million barrels) and 50 Afromax vessels (650,000 barrels).

Gibson said the changes to traditional methods of oil extraction and the location of oil sands resources in Alberta “will cause fundamental changes to the existing transportation routes.”

It said the prospect of 525,000 barrels per day of shipments from Northern Gateway, which is tied to the oil sands and import 193,000 bpd of condensate on a parallel pipeline, can be “viewed with some optimism for the crude tanker market.”

Despite fierce opposition to the associated pipelines and tanker traffic, Gibson credited Enbridge with doing its homework “in terms of safety and environmental concerns ... drawing upon the impact of the oil spill from Exxon Valdez” in 1989.

It said tankers from the Northern gateway terminal at Kitimat would “have to navigate the Douglas Channel, a wide, deep fjord similar to conditions found in Alaska.”

The report also noted the proposal by British Columbia newspaper publisher David Black to build a refinery at Kitimat adds to the prospect of tanker shipments from the B.C. coast.

It said that while neither Northern Gateway nor the Kitimat refinery are “done deals, these projects will have to meet some of the most stringent emissions standards anywhere in the world.

“It appears Enbridge has done all it can to bring them to reality,” Gibson said.

—Gary Park