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will as a country want to have some conversations about infrastructure ”
looking at projects that could add up to 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) of capacity within the next five years. Meanwhile, Canada’s biggest oil pipeline company is working with Alberta’s government and other customers to expand its major export pipelines as part of the province’s plan to double crude production in the coming years. Enbridge expects it can add as much as 300,000 bpd of capacity out of Western Canada by 2028 through optimization of its Mainline system and U.S. market access pipelines. Enbridge spokesperson Gina Sutherland said the company can add capacity in a number of ways including system optimizations and the use of so-called drag reducing agents, which allow more fluid to flow by reducing turbulence. LNG AND ELECTRICITY DRIVE STRONG DEMAND FOR NATURAL GAS Growing global demand for energy also presents enormous opportunities for Canada’s natural gas industry, which also requires new transportation infrastructure to keep pace with demand at home and abroad. The first phase of the LNG Canada export terminal is expected to begin shipping 1.8 billion cubic feet of gas per day (Bcf/d) later this year, spurring the first big step in an expected 30 per cent increase in gas production in Western Canada over the next decade. With additional LNG projects in development and demand increasing, the spiderweb of pipes that gathers Alberta and B.C.’s abundant
gas supplies need to continue to grow. TC Energy CEO Francois Poirier is“very bullish” about the prosect of building a second phase of the recently completed Coastal GasLink pipeline connecting natural gas in northeast B.C. to LNG terminals on the coast at Kitimat. The company is also continuously expanding NGTL, which transports about 80 per cent of Western Canada’s production, with more than $3 billion in growth projects planned by 2030 to add another 1 Bcf/d of capacity. Meanwhile Enbridge sees about $7 billion
in future growth opportunities on its natural gas system in British Columbia. In addition to burgeoning LNG exports from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, TC Energy sees huge potential for gas to continue replacing coal-fired electricity generation, especially as a boom in power- hunger data centres unfolds. With such strong prospects for North America’s highly integrated energy system, Poirier recently argued in the Wall Street Journal that leaders should be focused on
finding common ground for energy in the current trade dispute. “Our collective strength on energy provides a chance to expand our economies, advance national security and reduce global emissions,”he wrote in a Feb. 3 OpEd. “By working together across North America and supporting the free flow of energy throughout the continent, we can achieve energy security, affordability and reliability more effectively than any country could achieve on its own.”
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