Oil pipeline capacity tight in 2008, NEB says
Oilsands projects are boosting the amount of oil for sale and pipeline capacity will be tight this year, the National Energy Board says.(Canadian Press)
Oil pipeline capacity is expected to be tight in 2008, the National Energy Board said in its 2008 assessment of Canadian pipelines, released Thursday.
But with $23-billion worth of proposed oil pipeline projects, it expects that there will be more than enough space to ship Western Canadian oil to markets in the U.S. and the rest of Canada.
In fact, some of the proposed projects may be delayed, if the new capacity exceeds the increase in oil production.
Oilsands projects are boosting the amount of oil for sale, the board said.
Western oil pipelines were over capacity last year, as some lines had more demand than space, and had to limit the amount shippers could transport.
The largest oil pipeline in the world, Enbridge Pipelines Inc., which runs from Edmonton to the U.S. near the border town of Gretna, Man., and to Eastern Canada, ran at 88 per cent of capacity in the first quarter of 2008, the board said.
Enbridge is one of the companies planning an expansion. The Alberta Clipper project, a 1,600-kilometre oil pipeline that will carry crude from Hardisty, Alta., to Superior, Wisc., could be open by late 2009. It will cost an estimated $2 billion.
While there is pressure on some oil pipelines, "there is adequate capacity in place on existing natural gas pipelines," the board said.
Most have some excess capacity, even during the peak winter season, when gas is used to heat homes, it said.
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