Trans Mountain adds $7 billion to expansion project budget, expects late-2023 completion

Canada's Trans Mountain Corp. has entered the second half of its crude pipeline expansion project, increasing the cost to C$21.4 billion (US$16.9 billion) from C$12.6 billion (US$9.9 billion) and extending the completion date.

Mechanical completion of the expansion—expected to transport an additional 590,000 b/d of Western Canadian crude oil between Edmonton, Alta., and Burnaby, BC for a total system post-expansion capacity of 890,000 b/d—has been pushed out to third-quarter 2023 from late 2022.

The cost increase includes all known project enhancements, changes, delays and financing, including impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the preliminary impacts of the November 2021 British Columbia floods in the Hope, Coquihalla, and Fraser Valley areas, the company said in a statement Feb. 18.

Originally planned by Kinder Morgan in 2014, construction on the project was estimated to cost $5.4 billion (OGJ Online, Dec. 13, 2013). In May 2018, Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd. agreed to sell the project to the Canadian government for $4.5 billion (OGJ Online, May 29, 2018).

The largest project in the pipeline’s history, the expansion project it involves installing about 980 km of new pipeline, new and modified infrastructure including pump stations and terminals, and a new dock complex at the Westridge Marine Terminal in Burnaby, BC.