Kinder Morgan’s application to expand its Trans Mountain pipeline with a twin line, currently before National Energy Board hearings, is fatally flawed because of Kinder Morgan’s insistence on expanding its existing marine terminal in Burnaby.
The Trans Mountain pipeline from Edmonton to Burnaby is the only existing outlet for Western Canada oil to West Coast tide water.
Two-thirds of the demand for refined petroleum products by the 3.5 million residents of the B.C. Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island is met by batching refined products from Alberta refineries down the existing Trans Mountain pipeline.
As an aside, it is possible to batch high-value refined products down almost any pipeline anywhere with only minor modifications. There is no physical need to ship raw bitumen as dilbit anywhere – in fact, the physical properties of refined products make them easier, environmentally less risky, and cheaper to ship by pipeline than shipping raw bitumen as dilbit.
Kinder Morgan has said it will cost $1.2 billion more to go to a new marine terminal in Tsawwassen than to expand their existing marine terminal in Burnaby. However, a pipeline to Tsawwassen would not require crossing the Fraser River, drilling through Burnaby Mountain, or greatly expanding the tank farm on Burnaby Mountain as does Kinder Morgan’s current proposal.
One must weigh increased tariffs due to higher cost against the clean-up, economic, social, public relations and insurance costs of a major dilbit spill in one of Vancouver’s harbours or in Burrard Inlet. And one must weigh higher tariffs against the very real possibility that no additional dilbit tankers will ever be allowed to navigate through Vancouver’s harbours – whether the NEB approves the Trans Mountain expansion or not.
The NEB “approved” Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline proposal to Kitimat with 209 conditions. However, there is general agreement that it will never be built because Enbridge cannot meet all the conditions, especially First Nations support – never mind obtain general environmental and social licence for its proposal to send two million barrel dilbit tankers down Douglas Channel, the longest fiord on B.C.’s coast. That feeling is shared by Alberta oil companies – none of whom has contracted for capacity in Northern Gateway.
Any higher tariffs required to go to a new marine terminal in Tsawwassen will be at least partly offset by lower costs to ship crude and refined products using two million barrel VLCC-class tankers than the 500,000 barrel Aframax-class tankers that shippers are limited to for navigation through Vancouver’s harbours and under the Second Narrows’ bridges. The larger tankers reduce the number of Salish Sea tanker transits by three-quarters as well as reducing the nautical miles of Salish Sea that is traveresed
The Tsawwassen First Nation has signalled it will consider industrial development on its lands. Members of the TFN vote Dec. 16 on plans for a liquefied natural gas export facility on their lands near Delta in suburban Vancouver and consultation is underway with its members about the LNG proposal.
Under the TFN’s approved Land Use Plan, 330 acres of land is designated for industrial use, of which 80 acres has been identified as suitable for an LNG facility.
Rerouting the end-point of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain expansion proposal to Tsawwassen using the existing Roberts Bank Rail corridor’s right-of-way removes the largest obstacle to expanding pipeline capacity to west coast tide water – large increases in tanker traffic through Vancouver’s harbours.
Large tankers could be loaded in deep water at Tsawwassen from a mooring buoy supplied by a line on the seabed, on a trestle, or on new or existing artificial islands. The existing Canaport marine terminal in Saint John NB, the proposed end-point of the Energy East pipeline, loads tankers in deep water using a mooring buoy system.
A significant amount of tankage is required, otherwise, little area is required on land for a new marine terminal.
If Canadians want increased capacity to West Coast tide water either a new marine terminal at Tsawwassen or the Eagle Spirit proposal for an oil and gas energy corridor to Prince Rupert, the safest place for a marine terminal on the B.C. coast, in spite of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s desired moratorium on tankers in B.C.’ s northern waters, must be pursued because it is unlikely the existing Northern Gateway pipeline or Trans Mountain expansion will ever be built as proposed.
Mike Priaro, P.Eng., is a lifetime member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA), has worked in facilities, production, operations and reservoir engineering, as engineering consultant, area superintendent, and engineering management in Alberta's oil patch for 25 years for companies such as Amoco and PetroCanada. He is the author of A ‘Canada-First’ Canadian Energy Strategy.
