Terasen close to decision on western pipeline expansions

Gary Park

Petroleum News Calgary correspondent

Terasen Pipelines is stepping up its race with Enbridge to carry more heavy oil from the Alberta oil sands.

The Calgary-based company (formerly BC Gas) expects to file applications with the National Energy Board before year’s end to boost capacity of its Express and Trans Mountain systems.

A C$70 million addition to Express would increase deliveries from Hardisty, Alberta, to Casper, Wyo., by 40,000-45,000 barrels per day to the current capacity of 172,000 bpd.

The Trans Mountain line from Edmonton to the British Columbia coast and the United States would get a C$15 million infusion to raise its capacity by 15,000 bpd from current shipments of 200,000 bpd of light and heavy crude.

The current plan is to work on the additions within a year for an in-service date of mid-2005.

Terasen is also working on a 300-mile Bison pipeline from the northeastern Alberta oil sands to the Edmonton refinery area. That 100,000 bpd project has been delayed by at least one year from the projected mid-2005 start up because oil sands projects were either slowed or put on hold.

On a much grander scale, Terasen is exploring a possible C$1.6 billion twinning of the Trans Mountain link, allowing it to ship 400,000 bpd of heavy heated crude.

That idea has put it in direct competition with Enbridge, which is eying a possible C$2.5 billion pipeline from northern Alberta to either Kitimat or Prince Rupert on the British Columbia coast for tanker shipment to California and Asia.