Anyone
relying on the recent words and deeds of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Natural
Resources Minister Joe Oliver, and other federal officials might be excused for
wrongly assuming that the shipment of Alberta oil sands crude to Canada’s west
coast and thence to Asian markets depends entirely on the approval,
construction and operation of Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Pipelines. With noteworthy consistency, their public advocacy
of Enbridge’s proposed pipeline system avoids reference to another already in
existence.
Kinder
Morgan, one of Enbridge’s chief competitors, owns and operates the 1150 km long
Trans Mountain Pipeline system, which moves crude oil and refined products from
Edmonton, Alberta to the Lower Mainland of British Columbia and, by means of its
branch Puget Sound Pipeline system, to northwestern Washington State. Trans
Mountain has been in operation since the early 1950s. In recent years, 10 per
cent of the tankers visiting Trans Mountain’s Port of Vancouver terminal have
been bound for Asia.
But the
Prime Minister and his federal colleagues portray Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project
as vital not only to diversifying Canada’s crude oil market but also to accommodating
Alberta’s accelerating oil sands production. As they see it, substantially
increasing oil sands production is essential to securing Canada’s long-term
economic growth and prosperity. Enbridge’s project fits into their grand scheme
by adding significantly to the North American pipeline capacity required to
move higher volumes of Alberta bitumen to market, and in particular to Asia. Anyone
crediting their recent words and deeds would be hard pressed to conclude
anything other than that Enbridge’s project is a national imperative.
No such
treatment is accorded Kinder Morgan, despite actively pursuing a proposal to expand
the capacity of its Trans Mountain system. Its current capacity to carry crude oil and
