Trans Mountain pipeline’s wins, losses

Gary Park

For Petroleum News

For Kinder Morgan, it’s a case of win-one-lose-one in its unending battle with Vancouver region municipal governments over the C$5.4 billion plan to triple capacity on the Trans Mountain pipeline system from the Alberta oil sands to the Pacific Coast.

As quickly as the company was told by Canada’s National Energy Board that it could proceed with studies of its prepared route without the consent of the City of Burnaby it was faced with another challenge from the City of Vancouver, which is taking court action in a bid to force the NEB to take climate change into account.

These interventions have already forced the NEB to delay the deadline for its final recommendations to the federal cabinet to Jan. 25, 2016, from July 2, 2015.

Kinder Morgan, operating through its Trans Mountain subsidiary, wants to increase capacity on the pipeline to 890,000 barrels per day from 300,000 bpd to meet its primary goal of offering an export service to Asia.

In a decision released Aug. 21, the NEB said that under federal legislation Kinder Morgan did not need permission for temporary access to study running the pipeline through a Burnaby mountain to avoid conflict with residential and business areas.

The National Energy Board Act stipulates that a company may enter into the land of any entity that lies on the intended route to survey or otherwise ascertain whether the land is suitable.

However, the NEB did rebuke Kinder Morgan for not making a formal request to the City of Burnaby sooner than it did, although it did say Burnaby “mischaracterizes the nature of the Trans Mountain request.”

The project leader Carey Johannesson said initial studies of the routing option could start within days and will include engineering, environmental and archaeological work to determine whether the proposal is technically feasible.

In a letter to Kinder Morgan, Burnaby insisted its bylaws and regulatory policies over public lands, parks and conservancies continue “to have effect.”

Meanwhile, the City of Vancouver has asked the Federal Court of Appeal for a judicial review of the NEB process for hearing the Trans Mountain application, while seeking a reversal of the NEB’s refusal to consider the climate change impact of the pipeline.

The city’s deputy manager Sadhu Johnston said the objective is to force a “thorough review (of the application) that evaluates not just the economic benefits, but evaluates the environmental impacts.”

“The City of Vancouver is the largest port city (in Canada) and we have a lot of coastline. We are already being impacted by changing sea level.

“We are directly impacted by the burning of fossil fuels and we believe that does need to be taken into account,” Johnston said.