Key takeaways:
- Flood, pandemic noted in expansion by Trans Mountain Corporation.
- Pipes for the Trans Mountain pipeline task are seen at a storage facility close to Hope, B.C.
The price soars 70% to approximately $21.4 billion:
An eye-popping 70 percent growth in the projected cost tag for the Trans Mountain addition was met Friday by jeers from environmental bodies and a commitment from the federal government to put no more public funds toward the project.
But Canada’s oil and gas industry stays staunchly behind a project it remains vital to the national interest, despite recently announced budget overruns that peg the new price of the Trans Mountain increase at $21.4 billion, up from an earlier assessment of $12.6 billion.
“We stay fully supportive of this world-class infrastructure project which is essential to Canada’s long-term financial triumph and energy security,” stated Suncor Energy Inc. chief executive Mark Little, in a report released simply hours after federal Crown corporation Trans Mountain Corp. released its new expense projections for the project.
Also read: P.E.I. repair firms overwhelmed with flooding calls
“While no one likes to see price gains, they are often a fact of life with projects of this size and in this circumstance were mostly outside Trans Mountain’s control,” stated Alex Pourbaix, CEO of Cenovus Energy Inc., in a particular statement.
The 1,150 km Trans Mountain pipeline has 300,000 barrels each day and is Canada’s best pipeline system transporting oil from Alberta to the West Coast. Its construction is presently underway. Its addition will nearly twin the current pipeline, increasing standard output to 890,000 barrels to help Canadian crude oil production and access international energy markets.
The federal government bought Trans Mountain for $4.5 billion in 2018 after previous owner Kinder Morgan Canada Inc. threatened to scrap the pipeline’s planned expansion project in the face of environmentalist opposition.
Source – cbc.ca
