Suncor Energy and other shippers including BP and Marathon Petroleum have expressed doubts that Trans Mountain’s full service will commence on May 1 as previously communicated, according to Reuters. Trans Mountain Corporation has stated that line fill on the expanded pipeline will be completed in early May. Despite a series of delays, cost overruns, and legal challenges, the expanded Trans Mountain oil pipeline is set to open for business on May 1. The expanded pipeline will triple the capacity of the original pipeline to 890,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 300,000 bpd to carry crude from Alberta’s oil sands to British Columbia on the Pacific Coast. The Federal Government of Canada bought the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX) from Kinder Morgan in 2018 for $3.3 billion (C$4.5 billion). Since then, the costs for the expansion of the pipeline have quadrupled to nearly $23 billion (C$30.9 billion). The expansion project has faced continuous delays over the years. In December, the Canadian regulator denied a variance request from the project developer to move a small section of the pipeline due to challenging drilling conditions. The company asked the regulator to reconsider its decision and received conditional approval on January 12, avoiding a potential two-year delay to start-up.
Trans Mountain Pipeline’s Full Service Start Date May Be Pushed Back
