Alberta Premier Expects New Oil Pipeline Proposal Within Weeks

Danielle Smith speaks in an interview at Bloomberg's Calgary bureau. Photo by Gavin John /Photographer: Gavin John/Bloombe

Article content

(Bloomberg) — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith expects a private-sector firm to propose a new oil pipeline to the British Columbia coast within weeks in a bid to become one of the first entrants on the Canadian government’s list of nationally important projects. 

Article content

Smith said she is in active discussions with major energy companies and that a line to northwest BC “is the most credible and the most economic of all of the pipeline proposals the private sector would consider.” She declined to name which company she expects to bring forward the project.

Article content

Article content

Article content

“I think there will be a private proponent,” Smith said in an interview with Bloomberg News in Calgary. Asked when the proposal would come, she replied: “Probably weeks.” 

Article content

Article content

Pipelines to the west coast have long been at the top of the Canadian energy industry’s wish list because they would reduce producers’ reliance on the US market and allow them to fetch higher prices for their oil. An expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline that was completed last year has opened the way for Canada to ship larger volumes of crude to markets in Asia, raising and stabilizing local oil prices.

Article content

Canada’s House of Commons cleared a bill Friday to accelerate the building of infrastructure such as pipelines and electrical transmission lines. The legislation, known as Bill C-5, allows proposals that are deemed in the “national interest” to receive a quicker review for environmental and other impacts. 

Article content

The goal of the law is to see major projects approved within two years, creating more certainty for companies before they embark on multibillion-dollar investment plans.

Article content

Prime Minister Mark Carney “is going to have his national projects list developing very soon,” Smith said. “So we want to be one of the first ones on it.”

Article content

Article content

Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau canceled one coastal pipeline — Enbridge Inc.’s Northern Gateway — after a court halted it amid objections from environmental and Indigenous groups. But US President Donald Trump’s tariffs have revived the idea that Canada should ship more of its vast oil and gas output to ocean ports, and Carney has expressed a willingness to consider new pipelines.

Article content

Representatives for Calgary-based Enbridge, the largest publicly traded oil pipeline company in North America, and rival South Bow Corp. did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

Article content

Smith has called for a “grand bargain” that would see oil companies build a large carbon capture project in Alberta to reduce the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions, in conjunction with a new pipeline that would generate billions in revenue to help pay for it.

Article content

Smith said on Bloomberg Television that she’s “feeling optimistic” she can work with Carney to build more oil export capacity, but added it will have to be a two-part process where both carbon capture and pipelines are proceeding. The governments of Canada and Alberta have agreed to help shoulder some of the costs of carbon capture.