The Trans Mountain pipeline's owner Trans Mountain Corporation said in its Q2 results press release on August 28 that it expects to increase the pipeline's "nominal system capacity by approximately 90,000 bpd by the end of 2026". Previously the company had been pointing to an early 2027 completion of the planned 90 Mb/d Drag-Reducing Agent (DRA) project (see our blog Kind of a Drag for an explanation of drag-reducing agents).

Volumes on the pipeline system averaged 840 Mb/d in Q2, or 94% utilization of the system's 890 Mb/d capacity, an increase of 137 Mb/d vs. Q2 2025. Approximately 510 Mb/d went to the Westridge marine terminal for export, which saw 82 vessels loaded in the quarter vs. 56 in Q2 2025, 96 Mb/d was delivered to British Columbia receipt points, and 234 Mb/d delivered by pipeline to Washington State. While China continued to receive the bulk of exports out of the Westridge terminal, Q2 also saw an increase to shipments to India/Brunei (see green bars in the chart below).

The target year-end 2028 start-up timing for the 210 Mb/d Mainline Optimization Project (MOP) was reiterated in the press release. 

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