In 2013, refineries in Eastern Canada imported 642 Mb/d of light crude. Today there are no pipelines connecting western Canadian crude supplies to the East Coast. By the end of 2014 the Enbridge Line 9 pipeline will link Canadian supplies from Alberta and Bakken supplies from North Dakota to refineries in Montreal. By 2018 the Energy East pipeline could be flowing 1.1 MMb/d to Canada’s Atlantic Coast and beyond. Today we begin a new series on eastern Canadian transport options by reviewing existing crude supply.
With western Canadian crude production growing rapidly and pipeline capacity to the US continuing to be constrained, the attraction to producers of an alternative route to international markets outside the US via the Pacific or Atlantic coasts is obvious. And there are plenty of projects on the drawing board to accomplish just that. But west coast pipeline plans such as the Enbridge Northern Gateway and the Kinder Morgan TransMountain Express expansion have run into permitting delays (see West Coast Pipe Dreams). A more ambitious plan to convert part of TransCanada’s Mainline natural gas pipeline to crude and extend it to the Atlantic Coast has gained shipper support and is going through the permitting process (see What Becomes of the Empty Pipelines). However, that project – known as Energy East – is unlikely to be in service before 2018. In the meantime, more modest proposals by Enbridge to expand capacity and reverse existing pipelines to increase crude flows to eastern Canada are almost complete and should be delivering oil from Alberta to Montreal by the end of the year. This blog series looks at the impact of Enbridge pipeline expansion projects to access markets in eastern Canada and the US. This first episode looks at the evolving supply situation for Eastern Canadian refineries.
There are 9 refineries in Eastern Canada with combined capacity of about 1.3 MMb/d (see Table #1 below). Although Canada produces far more crude than it consumes, much of this output is heavy crude from Western Canada. Eastern refineries are not configured to process this type of crude but instead mostly consume light crude supplied from a mixture of offshore Atlantic seaboard production, imports from international suppliers and increasingly – imports of light crude from the US. Offshore eastern Canadian production averaged 240 Mb/d in 2013 and East Coast refiners processed about 47 percent of that - mostly light sweet crude. Eastern refiners have also traditionally processed imports from the Atlantic basin – particularly light crudes from West Africa. But imports of US crude into Canada – primarily used to supply Eastern Canadian refineries reached a record 268 Mb/d in April 2014, double the level a year earlier, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). As we described last December, eastern Canadian refiners have been importing US crude even as exports of local offshore production have increased (see The Strange Canadian Crude Export-Import Anomaly).
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About the song
“Walk on the Wild Side” was written by Lou Reed and appears as the fifth song on side one of Lou Reed's second solo studio album, Transformer. Released as a double A-side single with “Perfect Day” in November 1972, “Walk on the Wild Side” went to #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart. The song’s lyrics describe the misadventures of several of the “superstar” regulars at Andy Warhol’s New York City studio, The Factory. Lou Reed has said that Nelson Algren’s 1956 novel, “A Walk on the Wild Side,” was the launching point for the song. In 2013, The New York Times described the song as “an unlikely cultural anthem as a siren song bringing a generation of people to a New York so long forgotten as to seem imaginary.” Personnel on the record were: Lou Reed (lead vocals), Herbie Flowers (fretless Fender Jazz Bass), Ronnie Ross (baritone sax — Ross was David Bowie’s sax instructor during his childhood), David Bowie (acoustic guitar), Mick Ronson (string arrangements), and Dari Lalou, Karen Friedman, and Carey Synge (background vocals).
Transformer was recorded during August 1972 at Trident in London with David Bowie and Mick Ronson producing. Released in November 1972, it went to #29 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart. The album is considered an influential LP in the 1970s glam rock genre. The striking front cover picture is from a photograph of Reed by Mick Rock. Three singles were released from the LP.
Lou Reed was an American singer, musician, songwriter, and poet. He started playing music in doo-wop groups while in high school. After graduating from Syracuse University, he went to work for Pickwick Records in New York City, where he met fellow musician John Cale. Together with Sterling Morrison and Angus MacLise, they would form the original Velvet Underground band in 1965. They soon added Moe Tucker as their drummer and German singer/model Nico as their singer. In 1966 they started being managed by Andy Warhol and became the house band at The Factory. The Velvet Underground released their debut album in 1967. Ten different people passed through the group before its final breakup in 1996. Reed left the band in 1970 to pursue a solo career. As a solo artist, he released 21 studio albums, 15 live albums, 16 compilation albums, and 46 singles. Reed was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice: as a member of the Velvet Underground in 1996 and posthumously as a solo artist in 2015. Reed died in New York City in October 2013 at the age of 71.
Comments
Sandy,
Small correction to your excellent articel, while Montreal might be limited to 350M barrel vessels, Quebec can handle Suezmax vessels up to 1 million barrels.