CALGARY –
After being hamstrung for years by a lack of export capacity, Canada’s oil industry will have reason to celebrate when the much-anticipated Trans Mountain pipeline expansion comes online, expected to be sometime this spring.
But the party may be short-lived, as the more-than-$30-billion pipeline is expected to quickly fill up – returning Canada’s oil producers to a “Groundhog Day” scenario of restricted growth and depressed prices.
“I think the industry wanted to believe Trans Mountain was the answer. They wanted everybody to believe that having this new capacity was going to free them from this problem,” said Richard Masson, executive fellow with the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy.
“But we’ve never really been free from this problem.”
Export issues have been a thorn in the side of Canadian energy companies for years, due to a lack of pipeline capacity from Alberta’s oilsands region to coastal tanker loading facilities.
That shortage of pipeline space, combined with refinery and …