Alberta eyes Arctic route to get its bitumen to market
Margaret Kriz Hobson, E&E reporter
Published:
At a time when Canadian officials are aggressively defending
TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline project, Alberta's Energy Department
is quietly considering an Arctic alternative to carry their bitumen to
market.
The department is spending $50,000 to study the pros and cons of
building a pipeline from Alberta's oil sands extraction sites north to
the small native hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk along the shores of the Beaufort
Sea in northwest Canada.
The study, which is being conducted by the Calgary consulting firm
Canatec Associates International, is the most recent option that the
Alberta government has floated in its effort to ship oil sands crude to
the world market.
"One of the biggest challenges we have here in Alberta is to get our
product to tidewater and to markets where they can fetch a fair price
for the resource," noted Energy Department spokesman Mike Feenstra.
"This is a feasibility study just to see if it makes any sense
economically and what, if any, the physical limitations would be,"
Feenstra added. The final report is due this fall.
The oil sands pipeline would have to cross roughly 2,000 miles of
Arctic tundra and wetlands to get to Tuktoyaktuk, population 930. The
village's natural harbor would have to be upgraded to accommodate the
increased commercial activity.
Tanker traffic would probably be limited to the summer months
because the Beaufort Sea is iced in for much of the year. However,
warming temperatures are keeping the Arctic ice-free for longer periods
each summer.
A pipeline is likely to be welcomed by local government officials
who are eager to develop the Northwest Territories' oil and gas
reserves.
"The government of the Northwest Territories has expressed some
interest in seeing more projects and development and would be
interested, as well, in seeing what this report would say," Feenstra
said.
But environmentalists vow to oppose the Tuktoyaktuk pipeline.
"Opposition to tar sands pipelines in the U.S. and Canada have
obviously forced the government of Alberta to look at alternatives to
pipe some of the dirtiest oil on Earth to one of the Earth's most
vulnerable environments," said Danielle Droitsch, director of the
Natural Resources Defense Council's Canada Project.
"Does it make sense to pipe tar sands to the Arctic? No. Is it
evidence they are taking desperate measures because they have few
alternatives? Yes," she added.
Is there support?
Droitsch said Northwest Territories residents are not likely to
support the pipeline because of its potential impacts on groundwater in
the region.
Environmental groups that are fighting the proposed Keystone XL
pipeline are also campaigning against several other pipeline projects
that would ship oil sand bitumen to Canada's east and west coasts.
Enbridge Inc. has proposed construction of the $6 billion Northern
Gateway oil pipeline, which would carry 525,000 barrels per day of oil
sands crude to the port of Kitimat in British Columbia on Canada's west
coast.
But the fate of that project could depend on the results of the May
14 provincial elections. Polls show that the left-leaning, anti-pipeline
New Democratic Party could prevail, essentially halting work on the
gateway project (EnergyWire, April 18).
Enbridge is also considering reversing its Trailbreaker natural gas
pipeline and using it to ship an estimated 200,000 barrels per day of
bitumen to an East Coast port. The pipeline runs east to Montreal and
then heads south through Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, where
environmental opposition is expected to be fierce.
Kinder Morgan Canada has proposed a $5.4 billion expansion of its
Trans Mountain pipeline, which runs west from Alberta to Vancouver,
British Columbia. The company is seeking to triple the capacity of the
pipeline to 890,000 barrels per day (EnergyWire, April 24).
Meanwhile, TransCanada is proposing an alternative route to carry
oil sands bitumen to the East Coast. Early this month, the company
announced an open season on a project to convert its Mainline natural
gas pipeline to carry oil sands bitumen.
The $5 billion Energy East Pipeline could carry 850,000 barrels per
day of oil sands from Alberta to Quebec. From there, the company would
build an extension to the port city of St. John in New Brunswick (EnergyWire, April 3).