Trans Mountain pipeline
The Trans Mountain Pipeline System, or simply the Trans Mountain Pipeline, is a multiple product pipeline system which carries crude and refined products from Edmonton, Alberta, to the coast of British Columbia, Canada.
The corporation was created in 1951, construction began in 1952, and operations commenced in 1953. It is the only pipeline to run between these two areas. The construction of a second pipeline between Hinton, Alberta, and Hargreaves, British Columbia, running adjacent to the existing line, was completed in 2008. In 2013, a project to loop the existing Trans Mountain pipelinethe Trans Mountain Expansion Projectwas proposed to the Canadian National Energy Board. The project was 98% complete, as of 23 January 2024, and began operations on 1 May 2024. The expansion, which runs roughly parallel to the existing pipeline, increased capacity from, at a cost of C$53 billion.
The Trans Mountain Expansion Project was controversial due to its potential environmental impact. It faced legal challenges, as well as challenges from environmentalists and First Nations groups on the grounds of inadequate consultation of the pipeline route passing through unceded indigenous land. A Supreme Court decision on July 2, 2020, that rejected the appeals made by First Nations and environmental groups, " an end to the years-long legal challenge".
On August 31, 2018, the Government of Canada purchased the pipeline for $4.7 billion from Kinder Morgan through the creation of the Trans Mountain Corporation, in order to "keep the project alive". TMC is a Crown corporation, a subsidiary of the Canada Development Investment Corporation. Until the purchase by CDEV, the Trans Mountain Pipeline was owned by the Houston–based pipeline operator's Canadian division.
History
In February 1947, large oil deposits were discovered near Leduc, Alberta. The idea for a pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia quickly emerged, driven by the growing demand for oil both in Asia and on the west coast of Canada and the United States. One element seen as a benefit to the project were defence implications, with availability of oil infrastructure being beneficial to both the Canadian and US militaries.On March 21, 1951, the Trans Mountain Pipeline Company Trans Mountain was created when the Canadian Parliament granted the company a charter under a special act of parliament. The proposal for the pipeline was immediately submitted to the Board of Transport Commissioners and was approved. Construction began in February 1952 and the final section was welded in place near Aldergrove, British Columbia on October 17, 1952. According to a 2019 JWN Energy seriesInside Canada's Pipeline Industryby former editor of Oilweek, Gordon Jaremko, both the Board approval and the construction of the pipeline were sped up as concerns about the Korean War mounted. The governments considered the TMPL to be a strategic way of reducing reliance on oil tankers, made vulnerable under threats of potential attack on the west coast of North America. Canadian Bechtel Ltd. was responsible for engineering, design, and construction of the project. Ownership of the company was split between Canadian Bechtel Ltd. and Standard Oil.
In August 1953, crude oil from Edmonton, Alberta, began flowing to refineries in the Vancouver area and the northwestern U.S. through TMPL. The total cost of TMPL was $93 million, according to then Premier of British Columbia W. A. C. Bennett at the opening ceremony. Prior to 1983, the only product TMPL carried was crude oil to supply refineries in the Vancouver area and to the state of Washington.
Shift from single to multiple products pipelines
In 1983, Trans Mountain began experiments to shift from single- to multiple-product pipelines to increase efficiency and to become more competitive. By 1985, TMPL regularly carried refined-products from Edmonton to Kamloops, British Columbia. This had extended to Vancouver by 1993. A 1993 report said that the TMPL was the "only major system in the world" at that time, transporting both crude oil and refined petroleum products" in a single pipeline. By 1998, TMPL made regular shipments to Vancouver of refined petroleum products "including jet fuel, gasoline, diesel, methyl tertiary butyl ether, and crude-oil ".In 2004, Kinder Morgan began the process of adding a second pipeline, running parallel to the first, for the portion running between Hinton, Alberta, and Hargreaves, British Columbia. That required building two more pumping stations–the Wolf Pump Station, near Niton Junction, Alberta, and the Chappel Pump Station, near Pyramid Creek Falls Provincial Park, British Columbia. Capacity was increased by : from.
TMPL and oil refineries
, Petro-Canada, and Imperial closed refineries in British Columbia in the 1990s and expanded their refineries in the Edmonton area following the TMPL construction. TMPL had the capacity to carry refined products, as well as crude oil via the batch system. According to a 2016 Oil Sands Magazine article, this resulted in the conversion of existing refineries along the TMPL route into storage and distribution facilities and terminals. In 1983, Kamloops' Royalite Refinery, was shut down. In 1993, two refineries were closedShell's in North Burnaby, a large Vancouver neighbourhoodand Petro-Canada's in Port Moody which is east of Vancouverwere closed. In 1995, Imperial Oil closed their refinery in Port Moodya city which is part of the Metro Vancouver Regional District. After TMX opened in 2024, oil refineries complained about poor oil quality.Spill history
, TMPL had reported approximately 84 spills to Canada's National Energy Board since 1961. Although a majority occurred at contained zones such as pumping stations, and a majority were below the mandatory reporting threshold of 1.5 cubic metres, there were some significant spill events.In Abbotsford in 2005, a ruptured pipeline dumped of crude oil. The company attributed the accident to activity on a neighbouring property. In 2007, in Burnaby, a contractor working on a sewage project for the city of Burnaby ruptured a pipeline, causing spillage of of crude oil. Some of it flowed into Burrard Inlet via the Burnaby storm sewer system. Most of it was recovered. Eleven houses were sprayed with oil, and about 225–250 residents were evacuated or left voluntarily. Cleanup took more than a year. In 2009, in Burnaby of crude oil were released from a tank at the Trans Mountain Burnaby Terminal. Most of it flowed into a containment area.
In Sumas in 2012 of light crude oil leaked from a Sumas Mountain holding tank. All of it flowed into a containment area. In 2020, in Sumas, of light crude leaked from small pipe connected to mainline. Trans Mountain reported on June 14 that the spill was contained on the property and that groundwater was monitored for contamination.
Trans Mountain Expansion Project
On June 18, 2013, Kinder Morgan filed an application with the National Energy Board pursuant to Part III of the National Energy Board Act to build a second pipeline under the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project. The second pipeline was to run roughly parallel to the existing pipeline, between Edmonton and Burnaby and to be used to transport diluted bitumen, also known as dilbit. The additional pipeline requires 12 new pumping stations. The proposed expansion, with of pipe, would increase the system's capacity from. In 2013, the cost of completing the connection between Strathcona County and Burnaby was estimated at $6.8 billion.Kinder Morgan had the support at the time of several large petroleum industry customers for the expansion. In 2016, the B.C. government said it did not support Trans Mountain, partly because Kinder Morgan had not provided enough information about its proposed spill prevention and spill clean-up program.
On November 29, 2016, the federal cabinet approved the expansion project, announcing that the approval was "subject to 157 binding conditions that will address potential Indigenous, socio-economic and environmental impacts, including project engineering, safety and emergency preparedness."
On January 11, 2017, B.C. Premier Christy Clark announced British Columbia's support for the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline, saying the project met her government's five conditions for approval and included a revenue-sharing agreement worth up to $1 billion. In 2018, the federal government created a Crown corporation, the Trans Mountain Corporation, when it bought the pipeline from the Houston-based Kinder Morgan for C$4.5 billion. The purchase had been announced by the federal government in May 2018. At that time, the government said it would seek outside investors to complete the expansion. These investors would also be indemnified for any delays induced by provincial or municipal governments. In 2020, three insurance companies that had previously supported the project withdrew their support, including Zurich Insurance Group, the leading insurer. The company that is advancing the project said that it still had enough insurance coverage. By February 2020, the assessment for the completion of the project was estimated at $12.6 billion, an increase of the previous estimate of $7.4 billion. The cost increase was the result of rising costs of "labour, steel, and land". In a September 2020 interview with the Canadian Press, TMC's CEO Ian Anderson said that the expansion was on schedule despite the $5.2-billion increase in its cost. Anderson cited other challenges to construction including the COVID-19 pandemic, the slump in the demand for fuel, which contributes to the slump in the price of oil, and the protests by opponents to the expansion.
By February 2022, TMC said that costs had increased by 70%, from $12.6 billion to $21.4 billion. Faced with the federal government's costly COVID-19 response, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, said this new funding for the pipeline was not part of the federal government's commitment. The status of the company changed to a non-agent Crown corporation on April 29, 2022, which meant that it was able to access financing from third-party lenders. In March 2023, it was announced that the cost has again increased to $30.9 billion. As of April 2022, construction had reached the half-way mark. The company said in their November 2022 third-quarter report that expansion would be mechanically complete by the third quarter of 2023 and the commercial service would be operational in the fourth quarter of 2023.
According to a January 2023 statement from the company, more than of pipe was already in place representing 75% of the entire project. On January 3, 2024, Trans Mountain Corp said in a 33-page filing that it planned to begin line fill in March or May, depending on the diameter of pipe to be used and assuming no new problems. The line fill represents the final step before the pipeline goes into service. According to the filing, the pipeline can enter service within one month of mechanical completion preceding line fill.
On May 1, 2024, the long-delayed Trans Mountain pipeline expansion officially begun operations after 12 years and C$34 billion in costs. The project nearly tripled oil pipeline capacity from Alberta to Canada's Pacific coast to, enabling better access to global markets and boosting crude prices.