Kinder Morgan plans to replace Steven Kelly’s evidence in the National Energy Board pipeline hearing by Sept. 25, and the oil company is hoping the hearings will be back on track as soon as possible.
Kinder Morgan is hiring Muse Stancil, a Texas-based energy consulting company, to prepare oil market supply and demand projections to replace Kelly’s evidence, which the NEB struck from the record due to conflict-of-interest concerns.
“The (new) report is going to provide economic information, and we believe it will confirm the case for the viability of this project,” said Lizette Parsons Bell, a spokesperson for the pipeline project.
The three-person panel deliberating on Kinder Morgan’s file decided to remove Kelly’s evidence after the government announced Kelly would join the NEB, effective Oct. 13.
When asked if Kinder Morgan may have an entirely different economic analysis on its hands, given Kelly’s evidence is now roughly two years old and oil prices have changed, Parsons Bell declined to comment.
“I can’t speculate on that. I think we have to wait and see what we get back from them,” she said, adding she thinks the project is still viable. “It’s built on long-term contracts and long-term projections.”
Removing Kelly’s evidence also means some of Kinder Morgan’s answers to intervenors will be replaced, including responses to queries from the City of Burnaby and pipeline critics Robyn Allan, former CEO of ICBC, and Marc Eliesen, a former deputy energy minister in Ontario and Manitoba.
Intervenors have the chance to comment on Kinder Morgan’s plan to replace Kelly’s evidence; the deadline for that is Sept. 4. The ball is now in the NEB’s court, as the board has to set a new hearing schedule.
