The Financial Post reports in its Saturday edition that a group of oil shippers, including Canadian Natural Resources, Suncor Energy, and Cenovus Energy, are requesting the Canada Energy Regulator to mandate Trans Mountain Corp. to provide them with a detailed and complete breakdown of the increasing construction costs of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project. A Canadian Press dispatch to the Post reports that the shippers are looking for an order from the CER to compel the company to provide more information about why the project's cost has risen to over $30-billion from the initial estimate of $7.4-billion in 2017. The oil companies stated in a motion filed with the CER earlier last week: "The stakes are high: billions of dollars at issue, with Trans Mountain's (costs) having more than quintupled since 2017 -- and its costs are still growing by billions, seemingly unchecked. Yet Trans Mountain refused to answer most of participating shippers' (request for information) and inappropriately dismissed most requests as irrelevant 'fishing expeditions.'" Trans Mountain and its customers are currently engaged in a dispute over tolls, the term for the fees TMX will charge to ship oil on the expanded pipeline.
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