TransCanada Corp announced the construction of another piece of its infrastructure network, this one in Alberta. TransCanada will spend $900 million on a new pipeline and storage terminal. The pipeline will link an area north of Edmonton and the town of Hardisty, 200 kilometres to the south. The terminal will have capacity for 1.9 million barrels. Hardisty is the start point of the Keystone pipeline system. The new pipeline could transport 900,000 barrels of crude per day. This is necessary to keep up with expected increases in production.
Alberta oil production is projected to increase by about three million barrels per day over the next fifteen years. It is because of this increased production that companies like TransCanada have to get the infrastructure in place. A spokesman for TransCanada said that its pipelines will help link Alberta crude resources to markets in Eastern Canada and in the United States.
TransCanada also has a plan to ship up to 850,000 barrels of crude per day from Alberta and Saskatchewan to refineries in Quebec and New Brunswick. The Energy East Pipeline Project will create a new domestic market for Western Canada’s oil, TransCanada says, and potentially open “a new channel for international exports in the future.” The Energy East project, which would begin in Hardisty, Alberta, would involve pipeline conversion as well as new pipeline construction.
TransCanada currently operates more than 24,000 kilometres of natural gas pipelines and 3,500 kilometres of crude oil pipelines in the Keystone network.
