As crude oil production continues to grow in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, more pipeline capacity will be needed. The 590-Mb/d Trans Mountain Expansion in 2024 temporarily provided a period of surplus capacity, but that is shrinking. Today, we go through all the projects in the works.
This year (2013) Canadian regulators are expected to decide the fate of two West Coast crude oil pipeline projects. If one or both of these pipelines get the go-ahead then future expansion of Canadian production will be secure for a few more years and the export option to Asia will bring producers higher prices. The regulators face a single jeopardy – approve the pipelines or Canadian crude production expansion will decline. Producers face a double jeopardy if the pipelines are not built – lower production and lower prices. Today we discuss how critical the West Coast pipeline projects are to Canadian producers.
<p>Plenty of new natural gas shale reserves have been discovered in Western Canada. In British Columbia (BC) there are four basins (Horn River, Montney, Liard and Cordova) with estimated reserves in place exceeding 1,200 Tcf.</p>
