A Plethora of Pipelines

Fresh on the heels of a major pipeline announcement last week in Calgary, Premier Danielle Smith welcomed another high-profile guest to the Stampede city for yet another major pipeline announcement.

This time it was Ontario Premier Doug Ford and instead of a pipeline to the west coast, this latest proposal - dubbed “Northern Shield” - would see a new pipeline bound for eastern Canada:

From the press release:

“After signing an agreement last year to work together with Alberta and Saskatchewan to build new pipelines through an economic corridor from Alberta to Ontario, the Government of Ontario has unveiled a potential route of a new 3,300-kilometre oil pipeline from Hardisty, Alberta to Sarnia, Ontario. The Northern Shield Energy Corridor would pave the way for Alberta’s barrier-free access to domestic refineries and markets in eastern Canada. Greater access to open water ports will allow Alberta to serve its growing list of customers overseas, ensuring Canada captures the full value of its energy resources.

(…)

Alberta is committed to working with provincial and federal partners to turn this opportunity into reality. A new west-east pipeline will connect Canadian energy with Canadian consumers while laying the foundation for future growth. Now that a potential route has been identified, the Government of Ontario is commencing work to estimate costs and examine commercial models and related development opportunities for the energy corridor.”

Unlike the west coast pipeline proposal, which has been submitted to the Major Project Office and has federal backing, this Northern Shield concept is still in very early stages.

Additionally, there is already a pipeline that carries Alberta oil to refineries in Sarnia: the Line 5 pipeline, part of the broader Enbridge Mainline:

As you can see, much of that pipelines runs through the U.S. and carries product to American destinations, in addition to the Sarnia connection (which also links to the Line 9 pipeline, which carries oil to Montreal).