Oil is flowing through the new Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, but it will be several weeks before it passes through the portion of the line that runs through north Langley.
The pipeline extension, which almost triples capacity on the only pipeline route that runs from Alberta to the B.C. coast, was given its final approvals from the Canadian Energy Regulator on April 30, but the first oil was loaded into the pipeline at the Edmonton Terminal on April 16.
Final welds linking the last segments of the extension were completed on April 11, between Hope and Chilliwack.
Trans Mountain could not say exactly when the oil will begin flowing through the Lower Mainland, with a spokesperson for the pipeline project only saying it would take “several weeks” to complete the line fill, a process that would take more than four million barrels of oil.
As of April 30, the expanded portion of the pipeline was about 70 per cent full by volume and 69 per cent full by distance from Edmonton.
The original pipeline, built in the 1950s, could carry up to 300,000 barrels of oil per day. With the new expansion, the two pipelines together will be able to carry up to 890,000 barrels per day.
It’s expected to open up global export markets for Alberta’s oil, as well as increase the price producers can demand for that oil.
The pipeline project was controversial, with protests across Canada, including here in Langley, objecting to the project on environmental grounds. Protesters were upset both about the overall expansion of fossil fuels, which produce carbon dioxide and heat the planet, and about the increase in tankers that will be filling up at the pipeline’s terminus in Burnaby, and the possibility of spills.
The project took four years to build once approval was given, and costs ballooned during that time, with a total bill of approximately $34 billion. The federal government took over the project when original builder Kinder Morgan backed out, and Ottawa is now expected to sell the pipeline to a long-term private owner, likely at a loss.
In Langley, the pipeline could not follow the original route through all areas, as some had become built-up suburbs since the 1950s. Instead, parts of it followed a new route, across farmland and rural areas, and through the Redwoods Golf Course in Walnut Grove.
The construction caused a number of sinkholes along the route through Langley.
READ MORE: Oil flow along $34B Trans Mountain pipeline through B.C. begins
