Enbridge makes pipeline progress
(News) Saturday, 09 February 2008, 01:00 PST
GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
Enbridge says it has secured third-party funding to advance the regulatory process of its proposed $4-billion pipeline project through northern B.C., which would open up the possibility of shipping Alberta oilsands oil to markets in Asia.
The company included the third-party funding information as part of an update on projects under development released in year-end financial results, a $636 million profit for 2007.
Calgary-based Enbridge announced 15 months ago it was delaying the mega-project, as it had decided to give priority to increasing pipeline capacity inland to the U.S.
It's unclear whether the announcement about the third-party funding will trigger a resumption of the National Energy Board environmental approval process. As a result of the delay in the project, the NEB had indicated it was not going to exercise any power or perform any duty or function on the file.
Enbridge spokesperson Jennifer Varey said Friday the company's work towards a NEB regulatory filing, although it had slowed down because of the focus on building pipeline capacity to the U.S., has continued.
Varey said the company also continues to stick to its revised timeline, which was pushed back two to four years until 2012 to 2014.
She wouldn't say who the third-party funders were.
During a conference call Wednesday to discuss the company's financial results, Enbridge president and CEO, in response to a question about the third-party funders, said they were on the shipping side, both producers and refiners.
On the same conference all with analysts, Enbridge chief financial officer Richard Bird said it's not so much that the company was resuming progress on Gateway, but that it has never been doing anything but continuing to develop the project.
"This is basically, I think, in line with our expectation that somewhere between 2012 and 2014 is the point in time where it will become desirable, from a commercial perspective, to have Gateway in place, and this just is a natural step in the progression towards that ultimate objective," Bird told the analysts. "So I wouldn't read into this a major change in the development of Gateway. It is consistent with what we have said in the past," he said.
In a significant development five months ago, a senior executive of China National Petroleum Corp., the parent company of PetroChina, had said the company was tired of waiting for support for the project from Canada and was walking away.
Enbridge indicated it was surprised by PetroChina's comments.
Although Enbridge had not revealed details of the memorandum of understanding with PetroChina, it's believed the Chinese company had agreed to take half of the crude from the 400,000 barrels a day pipeline.
Enbridge has spent about $80 million on developing the Gateway project, which runs from the Edmonton area to Kitimat through northern B.C., passing just north of Prince George.
The twin pipeline -- carrying oil and condensate, an oil thinner -- is meant to provide increased capacity for the Alberta oilsands, where production is expected to double by the end of the decade.
The pipeline has received protest from First Nations and environmental groups.
Enbridge's decision 15 months ago to delay the Gateway project, and focus on U.S. markets, came a week after the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council filed an application in Federal Court challenging Ottawa's decision to send the $4-billion pipeline to a joint review panel.
The tribal council -- the largest First Nations group in B.C.'s Northern Interior -- had asked the court to overturn then-federal Environment Minister Rona Ambrose's decision because they said they were not consulted. Ambrose had announced the pipeline would be jointly reviewed by a panel of the National Energy Board and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.
http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=vie...
