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 | This article is missing information about pipeline terminals, maps, status, etc.(April 2020) |
Pipelines in Canada are important components of energy infrastructure in Canada as the majority of natural gas and oil deposits are located in landlocked Alberta and need to be transported to ports or terminals to access larger markets.
The Canadian Energy Pipeline Association (CEPA), whose 2019 members included Alliance Pipeline (natural gas), ATCO Pipelines (natural gas), Enbridge, Inter Pipeline, Pembina Pipeline (oil and natural gas), Plains All American Pipeline known also as Plains Midstream Canada, TC Energy (oil and natural gas), TransGas's TransGas Pipelines, Trans Mountain pipeline, Trans Northern Pipelines, and Calgary-based Calgary-based Wolf Midstream Inc.'s pipeline, was formed in 1993. [1] [2] CEPA members transporting most of the natural gas and crude oil from Canada to other North American markets. [1]
Since 2015, Chris Bloomer, a geoscientist, who had formerly served in executive positions at Shell Canada, Connacher Oil and Gas, and Petrobank Energy and Resources, replaced Brenda Kenny, who served as president and CEO since 2008. [3] Since 2015, CEPA, has provided an interactive map of its members' pipelines in Canada, including those under construction or newly completed, such as the Trans Mountain pipeline, and TC Energy's Keystone Pipeline expansion—Keystone XL—and its Coastal GasLink Pipeline Project. [4]
According to their 2020 performance report, some of the issues upon which they focus include environmental issues including the impact of climate change, pipeline integrity, and emergency responses, relationships with First Nations communities, regulatory policy, as well as health and safety. [2]
In a September 30, 2020 Calgary Herald article, with the oil and gas industry experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic economic slump, [5] CEPA CEO Bloomer was cited as stressing that Canada needs to "tout" its environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance in order to "attract new investment, expand oil and natural gas production, and get pipelines built". [6]
The Canadian federal government regulates around 10% (by length) of pipelines through the Canadian Energy Regulator. [7] The Regulator has precedence over provincial regulation when pipelines cross provincial or international boundaries.
Provincially each provinces has its own regulator listed below:
| Province | Ministry | Regulator |
|---|---|---|
| Alberta | Ministry of Energy (Alberta) | Alberta Energy Regulator [8] |
| Ontario | Ministry of Energy (Ontario) | Ontario Energy Board [8] |
| British Columbia | Ministry of Energy (British Columbia) | British Columbia Oil and Gas Commission [8] |
| Saskatchewan | Ministry of Energy (Saskatchewan) | Ministry of Energy (Saskatchewan) [8] |
| Manitoba | Directly supervised by Manitoba Legislature | Manitoba Public Utilities Board [8] |
| New Brunswick | Ministry of Natural Resources (New Brunswick) | New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board [8] |
| Quebec | Multiple | Régie de l’énergie du Québec Régie du bâtiment du Québec Ministère de la Sécurité publique Ministère du Développement durable, de l’Environnement et de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques Ministère de la Justice Ministère des Forêts, de la Faune et des Parcs Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail Commission de protection du territoire agricole du Québec Sûreté du Québec Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement Info Excavation [8] |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | N/A | None (no pipelines are present in Newfoundland and Labrador) [9] |
| Prince Edward Island | N/A | None (no pipelines are present in PEI) [10] |
| Nova Scotia | Ministry of Finance (Nova Scotia) | Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board [8] |
| Owner(s) | Name | Terminal | Terminal | Map | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TC Energy, ExxonMobil | Alaska gas pipeline | Alaska North Slope | Calgary, Alberta | Rejected | |
| Enbridge | Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines | Bruderheim, Alberta | Kitimat, British Columbia | Rejected | |
| Imperial Oil, The Aboriginal Pipeline Group, ConocoPhillips, Shell Canada, ExxonMobil | Mackenzie Valley Pipeline | Mackenzie Valley | Fort Simpson, Northwest Territories | Abandoned | |
| TC Energy | Energy East | Hardisty, Alberta | Saint John, New Brunswick |  | Rejected [11] |
| Owner(s) | Name | Terminal | Terminal | Map | Status | Status (as of date) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TC Energy | Coastal GasLink Pipeline | Dawson Creek, British Columbia | Kitimat, British Columbia |  | Under construction [12] | April 21, 2020 |
| TC Energy | Keystone Pipeline | Hardisty, Alberta | Patoka, Illinois, Port Arthur, Texas, Houston |  | Delayed [13] | April 21, 2020 |
| Trans Mountain Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Canada Development Investment Corporation | Trans Mountain pipeline | Edmonton, Alberta | Burnaby, British Columbia |  | Under construction [14] | April 21, 2020 |
| 35 First Nations groups | Eagle Spirit Pipeline | Northern Alberta | Prince George, British Columbia | Applied for | ||
| Enbridge | Enbridge Line 3 | Hardisty, Alberta | Superior, Wisconsin | Applied for |
| | This {{{1}}} is missing information about maps, and other pipelines can be added from the Pipelines in Canada template.(June 2020) |
| Owner(s) | Name | Substance | Terminal | Terminal | Map |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enbridge, Pembina | Alliance Pipeline | Natural gas | |||
| Emera | Brunswick Pipeline | Natural gas | Saint John, New Brunswick | Woodland, Maine | |
| TC Energy | Gas Transmission Northwest | Natural gas | Kingsgate, British Columbia | Malin, Oregon | |
| TC Energy | Great Lakes Transmission | Natural gas | |||
| TC Energy, Dominion Resources, KeySpan Corporation, New Jersey Resources Corporation, Energy East Corporation | Iroquois Pipeline | Natural gas | |||
| Enbridge, Emera, ExxonMobil | Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline | Natural gas | Goldboro, Nova Scotia | Dracut, Massachusetts | |
| TC Energy, ONEOK Partners | Northern Border Pipeline | Natural gas | |||
| Williams Companies | Northwest Pipeline | Natural gas | |||
| TC Energy | TransCanada pipeline | Natural gas | |||
| Emera | Brunswick Pipeline | Natural gas | Saint John, New Brunswick | Woodland, Maine | |
| SaskEnergy | TransGas pipeline | Natural gas | |||
| Enbridge, DTE Energy Company | Vector Pipeline | Natural gas | |||
| Portland Pipe Line Corporation (in the United States) Montreal Pipe Line Limited (in Canada) | Montreal—Portland pipeline | Oil | South Portland, Maine | Montreal, Quebec |  |
| Enbridge | Canadian Mainline (Line 1, Line 2 A, Line 3, Line 4, Line 65, and Line 67) [15] | Oil | Edmonton, Alberta | Gretna, Manitoba | |
| Enbridge | US Mainline (Line 1, Line 2 B, Line 3, Line 4, Line 5, Line 6, Line 14, Line 61, Line 62 Line 64, Line 67, Line 78) [15] | Oil | Gretna, Manitoba | Sarnia, Ontario and Flagan, Illinois | |
| Enbridge | Line 13 (Southern Lights pipeline) | Oil | |||
| Enbridge | Line 72 (AOC Hanging Stone) | Oil |
Enbridge Inc. is a multinational pipeline and energy company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Enbridge owns and operates pipelines throughout Canada and the United States, transporting crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids. Enbridge's pipeline system is the longest in North America and the largest oil export pipeline network in the world. Its crude oil system consists of 28,661 kilometres of pipelines. Its 38,300 kilometre natural gas pipeline system connects multiple Canadian provinces, several US states, and the Gulf of Mexico. The company was formed by Imperial Oil in 1949 as the Interprovincial Pipe Line Company Limited to transport Alberta oil to refineries. Over time, it has grown through acquisition of other existing pipeline companies and the expansion of their projects. Between 2012 and 2021, Enbridge transported over 32 billion barrels of crude oil.
TC Energy Corporation is a major North American energy company, based in the TC Energy Tower building in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, that develops and operates energy infrastructure in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The company operates three core businesses: Natural Gas Pipelines, Liquids Pipelines and Energy.
The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), with its head office in Calgary, Alberta, is a lobby group that represents the upstream Canadian oil and natural gas industry. CAPP's members produce "90% of Canada's natural gas and crude oil" and "are an important part of a national industry with revenues of about $100 billion-a-year ."
TransAlta Corporation is an electricity power generator and wholesale marketing company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It is a privately owned corporation and its shares are traded publicly. It operates 76 power plants in Canada, the United States, and Australia. TransAlta operates wind, hydro, natural gas, and coal power generation facilities. The company has been recognized for its leadership in sustainability by the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index, the FTSE4Good Index, and the Jantzi Social Index. TransAlta is Canada's largest investor-owned renewable energy provider. The company is not without controversy as the Alberta Utility Commission ruled in 2015 that TransAlta manipulated the price of electricity when it took outages at its Alberta coal-fired generating units in late 2010 and early 2011.
The Westcoast Pipeline, also known as the Westcoast Transmission System or the BC Pipeline, is a natural gas pipeline in British Columbia that brings natural gas from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin south to the province's heavily populated Lower Mainland. It connects to the Northwest Pipeline in the United States and east to TransCanada pipeline. Built in 1957 by Frank McMahon's Westcoast Transmission Co. Ltd., the 650-mile gas pipeline from Taylor in north-eastern British Columbia to the United States was Canada's first "big-inch" pipeline.
Petroleum production in Canada is a major industry which is important to the economy of North America. Canada has the third largest oil reserves in the world and is the world's fourth largest oil producer and fourth largest oil exporter. In 2019 it produced an average of 750,000 cubic metres per day (4.7 Mbbl/d) of crude oil and equivalent. Of that amount, 64% was upgraded from unconventional oil sands, and the remainder light crude oil, heavy crude oil and natural-gas condensate. Most of the Canadian petroleum production is exported, approximately 600,000 cubic metres per day (3.8 Mbbl/d) in 2019, with 98% of the exports going to the United States. Canada is by far the largest single source of oil imports to the United States, providing 43% of US crude oil imports in 2015.
SaskEnergy Incorporated is a Crown corporation of the Saskatchewan government, responsible for delivering and selling natural gas to residential, commercial, and industrial customers in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada. The company owns 70,000 kilometres of distribution pipelines, 15,000 kilometres of transmission pipelines, and serves over 405,000 customers. It is governed by The SaskEnergy Act and is the designated subsidiary of Crown Investments Corporation of Saskatchewan.
The Kearl Oil Sands Project is an oil sands mine in the Athabasca Oil Sands region at the Kearl Lake area, about 70 kilometres (43 mi) north of Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada that is operated by the 143-year old Calgary, Alberta-headquartered Imperial Oil Limited—one of the largest integrated oil companies in Canada. Kearl is owned by Imperial Oil and is controlled by Imperial's parent company, ExxonMobil—an American multinational that is one of the largest in the world.
The Keystone Pipeline System is an oil pipeline system in Canada and the United States, commissioned in 2010 and owned by TC Energy and, as of March 2020, the Government of Alberta. It runs from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Alberta to refineries in Illinois and Texas, and also to oil tank farms and an oil pipeline distribution center in Cushing, Oklahoma.
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Sonya M. Savage is a Canadian politician who was the minister of energy for Alberta from April 20, 2019, to October 2022. She was Minister of Environment and Protected Areas, being appointed on October 21, 2022. A member of the United Conservative Party (UCP), she was elected following the 2019 Alberta general election to represent Calgary-North West in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Savage also acted as the minister of justice and solicitor general of Alberta from January 18 to February 25, 2022, while incumbent minister Kaycee Madu underwent a probe into his conduct.
The Canadian province of Alberta faces a number of environmental issues related to natural resource extraction—including oil and gas industry with its oil sands—endangered species, melting glaciers in banff, floods and droughts, wildfires, and global climate change. While the oil and gas industries generates substantial economic wealth, the Athabasca oil sands, which are situated almost entirely in Alberta, are the "fourth most carbon intensive on the planet behind Algeria, Venezuela and Cameroon" according to an August 8, 2018 article in the American Association for the Advancement of Science's journal Science. This article details some of the environmental issues including past ecological disasters in Alberta and describes some of the efforts at the municipal, provincial and federal level to mitigate the risks and impacts.
Below is a brief timeline covering the history of the petroleum industry Alberta and its predecessor states.
The city of Cushing in Oklahoma is a central hub within the United States and worldwide oil industry. It connects major pipelines within the United States and is the location where the oil futures contracts end up being delivered.
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