The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday, July 30, edition that the flow of crude through
Enbridge pipelines in May
and June dropped thanks to wildfires at Fort McMurray which resulted in
production shutdowns. The Globe's Kelly Cryrderman writes that demand, however, for heavy oil has not halted. Production growth at
projects including Fort Hills,
Christina Lake, Sunrise, Kearl
and Surmont will increase pipeline
demand by 700,000 barrels
a day by 2020.
Chief executive officer Al Monico says, "If there ever was a case where
additional capacity was needed,
it's certainly today, on the heavy
side." Enbridge
says there is demand to move
200,000 barrels a day more than
it is able to accommodate. Enbridge is working to add
60,000 to 80,000 barrels a day of
new heavy-crude capacity
through optimization measures,
including using pipelines that
previously shipped light oil,
before the end of September.
Any last near-term hope for
the proposed Northern Gateway
pipeline was
kiboshed in June.
On Friday, Mr. Monaco said
Enbridge is still committed to
the project, which
has already cost $600-million in
preparatory expenditures, of
which about half is being paid for
by potential shippers.
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