The Alberta government is poised to make an announcement about its plans for a new West Coast oil pipeline later this week.
Sam Blackett, press secretary to Premier Danielle Smith, says there will be a “major announcement” on Thursday to share new details about the province’s submission to the federal major projects office.
The major projects office was established a year ago to speed along infrastructure deemed in Canada’s national interest.
Alberta is acting as a proponent for a new pipeline that would carry up to one million barrels per day from the oilsands to a yet-to-be-determined West Coast port for tanker export to Asia.
Under a federal-provincial energy accord signed last year, Ottawa’s support for the pipeline is contingent upon the building of the massive Pathways carbon capture and storage project that would offset some of the emissions impact from increased oilsands production.
Dennis McConaghy, an author and retired pipeline executive, says the fate of the pipeline rests largely with the CEOs of the five biggest oilsands companies, whose production would be needed to fill the new pipeline and who, as of now, are partners in the Pathways project.
He says those companies would be hard pressed to sign on as shippers on a new oilsands pipeline so long as they’re subject to higher climate costs in the form of the industrial carbon tax and requirement to spend tens of billions of dollars on Pathways.
“The private sector can finance this if it is confident that they will be allowed to go forward on these expansions with rational climate policy,” McConaghy said.
“Producers are not going to climb on without, I think at a minimum, a significant about-face by [Prime Minister] Mark Carney, which I don’t think will happen — at least not in the short run.”
The Alberta government is aiming for the pipeline being designated a project of national interest by October and getting shovels in the ground as early as September 2027.
