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Pipeline will ‘go forward’ ‘Astounded’ by opposition, Kinder Morgan boss says Trans Mountain expansion will ‘get built’ by late 2018; unhappy it is ‘choke point’ Gary Park For Petroleum News
Seldom heard from in public, Richard Kinder, chairman and chief executive officer of Kinder Morgan, has displayed his pique over opposition that has blocked a speedy passage through the regulatory process for plans to triple capacity on Western Canada’s Trans Mountain pipeline.
Declaring himself to be “astounded” by what has transpired since the proposal was formally unveiled, he told an IHS CERA conference in Houston that the application is facing an organized movement to turn pipeline permits across North America into a “choke point.”
But Kinder showed he has no intention of backing away from the plans to deliver 890,000 barrels per day of bitumen from the Alberta oil sands to tanker ports and refineries in British Columbia and Washington state.
“I believe that Canada, like the U.S., has the rule of law and I think that if you have a valid federal decision to go forward, the project will go forward,” he declared.
“I think we will get this permitted. We intend to get it built. And we hope to see it in service in the third quarter of 2018.”
Focus on last 30 miles Kinder said the bulk of opposition is focused on the last 30 miles of the pipeline route in the Metropolitan Vancouver region.
Otherwise, communities in the remaining 87 percent of the pipeline right of way have signed community support agreements for the C$5.4 billion expansion.
What surprises Kinder the most is that the protests, confrontations and legal actions are concentrated on the route used by the existing 300,000 bpd Trans Mountain pipeline that was expanded five years ago with only limited difficulty, even though it crosses through a national park.
“I am sure there are legitimate concerns about any mega infrastructure development, but a lot of this is about the pipeline as a choke point to get at production of the oil sands,” which activists in Canada and the U.S. want to “strangle altogether.”
He said those opponents are relying on a “spurious argument” to slow the development of fossil fuels, adding “I don’t know what the hell they are going to replace it with.”
Issue of ‘the public good’ Both Canada and the U.S., while faced with similar levels of pushback, are also defenders of the right to protest.
But at “some point, the public good should outweigh individual protest,” Kinder said.
Even so, he is confident that Canada’s National Energy Board will decide by early 2016 whether the Trans Mountain project is in the public interest, leaving 90 days for the federal cabinet to accept or reject the board’s recommendation.
The unprecedented heat on the NEB is forcing the regulator to take a more transparent approach to answering public criticism.
Peter Watson, recently installed as NEB chairman and chief executive officer, told the Vancouver Sun his agency plans to conduct an audit of the emergency response program at Kinder Morgan’s Canadian facilities, although the review will not be a part of the Trans Mountain public review.
He said the year-long audit will examine the company’s policies and practices, its safety culture and whether employees feel empowered to bring discrepancies to light, while noting that Kinder Morgan has a “good plan in place ... but we just don’t want to be complacent.”
Concern from BC, Vancouver area British Columbia Premier Christy Clark, and the seven Vancouver area mayors, voiced displeasure with the amount of information being made public by the NEB, especially in the wake of a recent spill of bunker oil from a cargo ship in the heart of the Vancouver port.
Watson said he has called on the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association to develop a new set of “best practices” for public consultation.
At the same time, he said 400 interveners have registered for the Trans Mountain review, which shapes up as the largest in the NEB’s history, which puts pressure on the review panel to keep the hearings “effective, fair and transparent for all.”
Although Watson told the mayors he wants to ensure “deeper engagement” with the public, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said he has little faith in the board and Trans Mountain process.
Robertson accused the NEB of “completely ignoring the economy and the quality of life here in Vancouver.”
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