Photo: The Sunrise Energy Project. Image from Husky Energy Inc.
Husky Energy Inc. has signed up to ship oil through the Energy East pipeline.
The Globe and Mail reports, “Husky, which is developing the [60,000 barrels per day] Sunrise oil sands project along with BP PLC and numerous heavy oil fields, has secured capacity on Enbridge Inc.’s Northern Gateway and Kinder Morgan Energy Partners’ Trans Mountain Expansion pipelines to the West Coast, the company said at its investor day on Wednesday. It has also signed up for TransCanada Corp.’s Energy East pipeline to Atlantic Canada and Enbridge’s Flanagan South project in the U.S. Midcontinent region.”
The company says that it has enough pipeline capacity through to 2020 and its CEO says, “Within that time frame, I have a high degree of confidence that at least one or two of these other pipelines will come to pass.”
The newspaper article notes, “Husky, which is controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, expects to more than double its steam-driven heavy oil production to more than 80,000 barrels a day by 2020, it said on Wednesday.” The Sunrise project is expected to begin production this year and has regulatory approvals for up to 200,000 barrels per day.
The company says it “dabbles” in transporting its crude by rail, but that it’s a small volume.
The Pembina Institute has noted that filling the Energy East pipeline would help spur 650,000 to 750,000 barrels per day of additional production from the tar sands, a 40 per cent increase in extraction. It has also calculated the pipeline would result in 32 million tonnes of greenhouse gases a year (not counting the subsequent emissions related to refining, refined transportation, distribution and consumption).
The Council of Canadians actively opposes the Energy East, Northern Gateway, and Trans Mountain pipelines, and has highlighted the dangers of moving crude by rail, notably in DOT-111 tanker cars through communities across the country.
