Canada's Regulator Sends Pipeline to Full Hearing
Canada’s National Energy Board has decided to hold a full public hearing into a variance application filed by TransCanada for its 1.5bn ft³/day North Montney Mainline (NMML) project in the Canadian province of British Columbia (BC).
Originally conceived and approved as a feeder line to the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission line, which would have delivered gas to Shell’s defunct Prince Rupert LNG terminal, TransCanada in March decided to repurpose the C$1.4bn ($1.12bn) NMML to move gas eastward into its Nova Gas Transmission (NGTL) system in Alberta, where it would be able to access markets in eastern Canada and the US.
“This project adds significant pipeline capacity that connects new gas supplies from the prolific Montney basin to the NGTL System and will provide access to markets across North America,” TransCanada executive vice president Karl Johannson said in March. “This investment further affirms our commitment to build key natural gas infrastructure in BC and ensures that the NGTL System can continue to efficiently and competitively meet the transportation needs of our customers.”
On the surface, the NMML in this configuration could help relieve pipeline takeaway constraints that are keeping about 5bn ft³/day of gas bottlenecked upstream of the AECO trading hub in Alberta. That bottleneck contributed to a negative price for gas at AECO in late September.
But others suggest it will only serve to bring more gas into the Upstream James River System, which is already oversupplied with gas that can't get to markets.
The decision by the NEB to subject the variance to a full public hearing comes as something of a setback for TransCanada. It had originally applied for the variance approval on a fast-track basis, largely because the original application had already gone through the public hearing process.
The new NEB hearing schedule, however, contemplates a decision by the end of next year. TransCanada had initially wanted approval in the first half of 2018 so it could put the new capacity into service starting in April 2019.
Dale Lunan