Information — what information?

Northern Gateway proponents say critics never satisfied no matter how much detail provided; Enbridge prepared to continue talks

Gary Park

For Petroleum News

A phalanx of Canadian oil sands producers have made their final push to win regulatory approval of Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline as 18 months of hearings wound up by scorning those who insist more information is needed.

Enbridge is now turning its efforts to building public support and winning over the British Columbia government and First Nations.

Project President John Carruthers said it’s now time to shift the spotlight from the joint review panel, JRP, of the National Energy Board and Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency to dealing with deep and persistent concerns expressed by those outside the regulatory arena.

“Everyone’s been able to submit their evidence, submit their questions and make their voices heard,” he said.”It’s good to get through this milestone and look forward to a recommendation at the end of the year.”

But Carruthers acknowledged there are people such as the British Columbia government, aboriginal groups and others that Enbridge must engage with to see if solutions are possible.

Enough information?

He said a comprehensive environmental and socio-economic assessment, along with a series of detailed technical reports, covering a combined 18,000 pages, were filed during proceedings, plus 17 studies dealing with the marine safety process.

“Yet there are those who will argue that there is not enough environmental information available to you to make recommendations,” Neufeld said. “It’s almost as if some of these organizations would have you believe that if only Northern Gateway had supplied a bit more environmental information they could have supported this pipeline.

“We know that’s not the case,” he said. “No amount of additional environmental information is going to persuade ForestEthics, the natural Resource Defense Council or any other member of the so-called tar sands campaign to support a pipeline such as this,” Neufeld sad.

The proposed C$6 billion project is designed to carry 525,000 barrels per day of oil sands crude from Alberta to a tanker terminal at Kitimat for shipment to Asia and California, while a parallel line would carry 193,000 bpd of imported condensate to Alberta.

Neufeld said Northern Gateway has demonstrated from the outset its commitment “to excellence in pipeline design, construction and operation and it’s also why it developed and has committed to the extended responsibility program for marine transportation.”

Observing that the British Columbia government has argued Enbridge’s emergency response plan is too preliminary and needs more detail, he argued Enbridge believes the “preparation of detailed operational plans at this stage of project development would be both unnecessary and, more importantly, counter-productive.”

Neufeld said there is still “ample time to develop detailed operational response plans that will be second to none,” given that Northern Gateway is not scheduled to start service until 2018.

Keith Bergner, a lawyer for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, CAPP — representing 90 percent of Canada’s oil and natural gas production — said the economic consequences of denying Northern Gateway and shutting in oil sands production are “simply unacceptable.”

“The failure to proceed with this application would cause huge economic costs to Canada — not to producers alone.

“Conversely, if the supply can reach markets, the economic benefits will be significant,” he said.

CAPP said it agreed with one producer, MEG Energy, which made a written argument that “the level of apportionment experienced on Canadian crude oil pipelines combined with the discounting of Canadian crude oil prices for crude shipped to the United States markets makes additional pipeline capacity, as well as market diversification, imperative for the industry.”

Bergner said that once Northern Gateway is in place it can be used to ship a wide variety of petroleum products, from crude oil to bitumen, conventional crude and refined products.

Countering the arguments of unions, he said refineries and upgraders can still be built in Canada to capture some of the value-added end of oil sands production, but said “that is a decision for the market to make.”

Bernette Ho, a lawyer for Northern Gateway’s funding partners Nexen, Cenovus Energy, Inpex Canada, Suncor Energy and Total E&P Canada, dismissed the assertions of environmentalists and unions that commercial support for the project is questionable.

“It is clear that the funding participants are not taking their commitment to the project lightly,” she said.

They consider “both their time and financial commitment to date to be significant evidence of their commercial support for Northern Gateway, all of which is at risk of regulatory approval for the project is not granted.”