(Newswire.net — August 2, 2013) Calgary, AB — Russ Girling President and CEO of Transcanada Corp. (TSX:TRP) (NYSE:TRP) announced that they will be going ahead with the 12 billion dollar Energy East Pipeline project.
The Government of Alberta sees the oil pipeline project as an opportunity to open new markets, create jobs and generate revenue. New Brunswick also sees the many benefits the project will bring to the east coast.
In spite of approval by the Alberta and New Brunswick provincial governments there are still many regulatory obstacles that need to be addressed before the project can go ahead.
There are many who oppose the project and have declared they will fight to terminate the project. They believe that safety and environmental issues are far too great to ignore. They also do not believe the pipeline will deliver the promised long term jobs opportunities.
In fact the Council of Canadians issued a statement, saying it will launch a national campaign to stop the project. Council of Canadians spokesperson Andrea Harden-Donahue, said in the statement, “While using an existing pipeline may reduce TransCanada’s costs, it increases spill risks for many rivers, lakes and communities along the route.”
According to the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association (CEPA) pipelines are the safest and most reliable method of transporting large quantities of crude oil over land. Between 2002 and 2011, pipelines in Canada transported oil and natural gas with a 99.9994 per cent safety record.
Energy East pipeline is a 4,400-kilometre pipeline that will carry 1.1-million barrels of crude oil per day from Alberta and Saskatchewan to refineries and export terminals as far as New Brunswick.
The Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) president Gil McGowan believes that Energy East pipeline could create more jobs if the project goes ahead. McGowan said, “We need a strategy to ensure Albertans get the maximum value out of the resources they own. Doing so creates more jobs and wealth.”
Alex Pourbaix Transcanada President of Energy & Oil Pipelines said, “Once completed the Energy East pipeline will have the capacity to move more than one million barrels of crude from our terminal in Hardisity, Alberta to a terminal to be built in southeast Saskatchewan to eastern Canadian markets each day.”
He mentioned that the refineries in Quebec and New Brunswick have to rely on foreign imports for 86% of their feed stock. This would amount to at least 700,000 barrels per day. At the present most of this oil is being shipped in from Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Libya.
The project will include using existing Transcanada pipelines between Western Canada and Montreal. The expansion will require the company to build new pipelines to take the crude to New Brunswick. There is also a possibility of extending the market to new energy markets such as India once the pipeline is in full operation.
Pourbaix said that, “70% of the needed pipe for this project is already in the ground. It does not need to be dug up for this conversion to occur, and this fact alone reduces the environmental and community impacts of the project.”
Transcanada has successfully converted pipelines in the past; the most recent one is the conversion of Line One of the original natural gas mainline for the Keystone Pipeline.
Alberta’s oil and gas industry looks at this announcement as positive news to open new markets create jobs and increase prosperity.
Media Contact Info:
Oil and Gas Directory – Oilfield Directory Publications
10301 104th Street Edmonton, Alberta T5J-1B9
Phone: 780-701-7282
Sources
http://energyeast.wpengine.com/about/the-project/
http://www.cepa.com/about-pipelines/maintaining-safe-pipelines
http://energyeast.wpengine.com/about/overview/ video link
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