Market Chatter: Alberta Oil Pipeline to Cost Sector More Than C$100 Billion, Imperial Says
Alberta's proposed million-barrel-a-day pipeline to the British Columbia coast will require Canada's oil industry to invest more than C$100 billion ($72.5 billion), the chief executive officer of Imperial Oil Ltd. says, Bloomberg is reporting Thursday.Industry will need to invest capital in growing production to fill the new line, make shipping commitments, as well as invest in a carbon capture project mandated by the federal government, John Whelan said at the Energy Roundtable conference in Calgary. The total cost is "north of a hundred billion dollars that we will need to attract to this industry," he said. "Now I think we can do that, but that's kind of scale of what we're talking about."Thursday's report noted Alberta Premier Danielle Smith proposed a new pipeline to the west coast as part of her goal to eventually double oil production in the province. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has pledged to back the new pipeline in exchange for a series of measures including a higher industrial carbon tax and the deployment of a long-planned carbon capture project in the oil sands, called Pathways, to reduce emissions, it also noted.Alberta plans to roll out details of the new pipeline, including the planned route to the coast, by July for federal approval by October, the report says. But Alberta's preferred northwest route faces stiff pushback from Indigenous groups in BC as well as the province's Premier David Eby. The project may also require a lifting of a moratorium on oil tankers if the pipeline goes to the northern BC coast, which Smith wants, it adds.Construction could start late next year, the government has said.(Market Chatter news is derived from conversations with market professionals globally, and/or from other media sources. This information is believed to be from reliable sources but may include rumor and speculation. Accuracy is not guaranteed.)