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Courting BC on pipelines Leading petroleum lobby group opens Vancouver office, pledges less talk more listening; targets 33% ‘disengaged’ from energy debate GARY PARK For Petroleum News
The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers is renewing its push for new oil pipelines to the British Columbia coast at the same time opposition keeps building against Kinder Morgan’s plans to triple capacity on its Trans Mountain system from Alberta to the Greater Vancouver area and Washington state.
CAPP Chief Executive Officer Tim McMillan said his organization will talk less and listen more, starting with the opening of an office in Vancouver.
“Coming from a political background, I think listening to Canadians is as important,” said McMillan, a former cabinet minister in the Saskatchewan government of current Premier Brad Wall.
He said the plunge in oil prices means the price gap between Brent crude and what landlocked Canadian producers have to accept from the West Texas Intermediate markets they serve makes it more important than ever to open exports to the Pacific-Asia region.
“Pipeline capacity, in many senses, is more crucial today, if we want to be competitive,” McMillan said.
Aiming at the ‘middle ground’ Despite the industry’s challenge to gain political and public acceptance for pipelines, CAPP’s internal polling shows about 40 percent of Canadians are generally supportive of energy projects, with 25 percent opposed and 33 percent listed as “disengaged,” he said.
“I think trying to engage that middle ground is crucial,” McMillan told reporters, claiming that CAPP has already managed to shift more of the disengaged towards support.
He said that developing oil resources sustainably and transporting them safely has been accompanied by “continuous improvement” on the environmental front, with producers lowering their greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent per barrel since the 1990s and recycling 95 percent of the water they use.
Expert disagrees
University of British Columbia resource-policy expert George Hoberg said making a case around reduced per-barrel emissions won’t win over the public at a time when oil sands production is expected to grow by 800,000 bpd over the next five years, with plans to add several million barrels in the 2020s.
He said CAPP would make more headway if it laid out a clear plan for Canada to play a “meaningful role in global efforts to reduce carbon emissions.”
Hoberg told the Vancouver Sun the Canadian industry’s focus on the oil sands has been overtaken by the rest of the world, which has made “dramatic growth in renewable energy production. We have greater renewable resources in Canada, but we’re letting them atrophy because we’re spending so much time trying to get (oil sands) bitumen to tidewater.”
Another bump for Kinder Morgan However, as fast as the industry cranked up its pitch, Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain expansion plan hit another bump in the road.
The application to triple capacity on the line to 890,000 bpd, which enters a National Energy Board regulatory hearing later this year, became entangled in plans for a new shipping terminal near Vancouver’s Fraser River Estuary.
The Roberts Bank Terminal 2 has been identified by activists as a possible alternative port for the Trans Mountain pipeline, which currently plans to use its Westridge terminal in the Greater Vancouver city of Burnaby.
But Port Metro Vancouver dismisses claims that Roberts Bank Terminal 2, which is part of an Asia-Pacific Gateway initiative to build international trade, could also be used to ship oil from Trans Mountain and overcome resistance from Burnaby.
A Trans Mountain spokeswoman told the Vancouver Sun that Kinder Morgan had initially evaluated using the new terminal, but said the idea made no sense because the company has existing infrastructure in Burnaby.
However, CAPP and Kinder Morgan are among 25 lobby organizations that have registered with Port Metro Vancouver to maintain a close watch over their desire to build crude exports from Canada’s Pacific Coast.
Their big test starts Aug. 24 with Kinder Morgan’s opening oral summary before the National Energy Board, followed Sept. 9-30 with oral arguments from the public.
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