The Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion’s tortuous construction process has hit another snag, and the company said it was considering options to keep the project in line with its latest deadline.
On Jan. 29, Trans Mountain, the government-owned Canadian company responsible for the pipeline’s construction, issued a statement saying that “during the pipeline pullback activity,” a section requiring a horizontal directional drill “encountered technical issues, which will result in additional time to determine the safest and most prudent actions for minimizing further delay.”
Trans Mountain is still estimating, for now, an in-service date by the end of the second quarter, potentially pushed back from an anticipated April startup.
The Trans Mountain Pipeline is Canada’s sole westbound, crude-carrying line. The CA$30.9 billion (US$23.035 billion) expansion project is 97% complete, and is expected to triple shipments from Alberta to the Pacific Coast at a rate of 890,000 bbl/d.
In 2013, the original cost of the project was slated at CA$5.4 billion (US$4.025 billion) and was to be built by Kinder Morgan, which sold the project to the Canadian government in 2018. Company officials have blamed price increases on labor shortages, supply-chain issues and unexpected difficulties encountered in building through the more rugged areas of British Colombia.
The latest issues arose at the end of last week, Jan. 25 to Jan. 27. The company’s announcement of the delay was two paragraphs long.
Besides informing the public about the technical delay, the statement said Trans Mountain “is fully focused on the completion of the pipeline and will not be providing interviews at this time” as workers continue towards an in-service date in the second quarter of 2024.
On Jan. 24, just before the technical problems were encountered, a company leader speaking at the Argus Crude Summit in Houston gave a start-up date of early April, Reuters reported.
Less than two weeks before, the company cleared a major hurdle towards completion, when the Canada Energy Regulator ruled Jan. 12 in favor of a pipeline variance the Trans Mountain had requested. The variance, which allowed the company to shrink the size of a 1.4-mile segment in British Columbia, was needed to avoid a delay that could have lasted two years, according to Trans Mountain executives.
Recommended Reading
EQT’s Toby Rice: US NatGas is a Global ‘Decarbonizing Force’
2024-03-21 - The shale revolution has unlocked an amazing resource but it is far from reaching full potential as a lot more opportunities exist, EQT Corp. President and CEO Toby Rice said in a plenary session during CERAWeek by S&P Global.
Watson: Implications of LNG Pause
2024-03-07 - Critical questions remain for LNG on the heels of the Biden administration's pause on LNG export permits to non-Free Trade Agreement countries.
Venture Global Seeks FERC Actions on LNG Projects with Sense of Urgency
2024-02-21 - Venture Global files requests with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for Calcasieu Pass 1 and 2 before a potential vacancy on the commission brings approvals to a standstill.
Belcher: Election Year LNG ‘Pause’ Will Have Huge Negative Impacts
2024-03-01 - The Biden administration’s decision to pause permitting of LNG projects has damaged the U.S.’ reputation in ways impossible to calculate.
Despite LNG Permitting Risks, Cheniere Expansions Continue
2024-02-28 - U.S.-based Cheniere Energy expects the U.S. market, which exported 86 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of LNG in 2023, will be the first to surpass the 200 mtpa mark—even taking into account a recent pause on approvals related to new U.S. LNG projects.