Enbridge推迟加拿大Mainline扩建、转而优先推进美国管道项目

Enbridge Inc. delayed the planned expansion of oil export pipelines out of Canada, citing the need for governments to finalize policy plans and producers to commit to growing oil sands production.

Chief Executive Officer Greg Ebel said North America’s biggest pipeline operator plans to focus on building out its US systems that move crude toward the Gulf Coast before looking to expand its Mainline pipeline that crosses the border from Canada.

The decision is a setback for Canada’s desire to significantly increase oil exports in the coming years as the Mainline expansion was part of an overall suite of projects that would grow pipeline capacity by around 2 million barrels a day. A new oil pipeline to the west coast of Canada was formally proposed at the beginning of this month by the federal and Alberta governments that would allow 1 million barrels of additional crude to be exported to Asia within a decade.

Ebel said the Canadian and Alberta governments need to finalize policies that will encourage companies to commit to oil sands production growth, and see those producers make investment decisions before moving ahead with the expansion project, named ML02.

“We expect MLO2 and our broader opportunity set to evolve to meet industry needs,” he said on an earnings call Friday. “In the near-term, we’re focused on advancing expansions on Flanagan South and Southern Access extensions as the next phase of sequenced growth across our mainline and market access system.”

The delay will result in a “small imbalance” in the system by around 2028, President of Liquids Pipelines Colin Gruending said. The US project’s “scope is simpler and will yield better economics for us here initially,” he said.

The company, however, remains bullish overall on the change in political direction in Canada. “We are quite excited about the coming policy environment, we’ve been advocating it for years,” Gruending said.

Construction is underway on part of its Mainline that would add 180,000 barrels per day of incremental capacity, which the company said represents the first export expansion to reach a final investment decision since 2017.

READ: Alberta’s New Pipeline Faces Doubts: Is There Oil to Fill It?

The Canadian government-owned Trans Mountain Corp. system running from Alberta to the Vancouver area is scheduled to be expanded to about 1.2 million barrels a day from 890,000 barrels a day currently within a few years. Trans Mountain will also construct the proposed million-barrel-a-day pipeline running to a new deep-water port in southern BC that, if approved, would have a target start early in the next decade.

South Bow Corp. is also planning to construct a new 550,000 barrel a day oil pipeline to connect to a project in the US that would be similar to the Keystone XL project that was canceled by the Biden administration in 2021.

Unlike other pipeline systems, Enbridge can’t secure long-term contracts to underpin expansions of its Mainline because the system is considered a common carrier pipeline that allows companies to secure capacity on a month-to-month basis.