The federal government of Canada is considering requiring separate climate tests for proposed crude oil pipeline and gas liquefaction projects under regulatory review.
The climate analyses would determine the impacts of the projects on Canada's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and would have to be carried out by Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain crude oil pipeline expansion project and by TransCanada's Energy East crude oil pipeline project, both under review by the National Energy Board (NEB). Pacific NorthWest, a proposed 12 Mt/year gas liquefaction project in British Columbia, would also be required to carry out climate tests. The US$11bn project is developed by Malaysian oil and gas company Petronas (62%), in partnership with Sinopec, Japex, Indian Oil Corporation (10%) each, China Huadian (5%) and Petroleum Brunei (3%). Operations could start as early as 2019.
The Energy East Pipeline Project is a 1.1 mb/d crude oil pipeline project, whose development will involve converting approximately 3,000 km of existing natural gas pipe in the Canadian Mainline between the Alberta/Saskatchewan border to Cornwall, Ontario, and the remaining 1,600 km will be new construction mainly in Québec and New Brunswick. Commissioning is expected in 2020.
The C$6.8bn (US$4.8bn) Trans Mountain pipe expansion project aims at increasing the transportation capacity of the existing pipe (from Edmonton, Alberta, to Burnaby, British Columbia) from approximately 300,000 bbl/d to 890,000 bbl/d by twinning the existing light crude oil and refined product pipeline.