992 kilometers
This is the length in kilometers of this Trans Mountain expansion. The route parallels the already existing Trans Mountain pipeline, and connects Edmonton, Alberta, to Burnaby, British Columbia.
The network aims to facilitate access between Canadian oil companies and markets in Asia and the West Coast of the United States.
Route of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project
Photo: Radio-Canada
890 000 barrels
Once in full operation, Trans Mountain will be able to transport 890,000 barrels of crude oil per day, the equivalent of 55 Olympic swimming pools.
With this new pipeline, Trans Mountain will almost triple its initial delivery capacity of 300,000 barrels of oil.
12 years
The Trans Mountain route has been winding, much like its route. In total, the project took 12 years to come to fruition. It was initially the company Kinder Morgan, then owner of Trans Mountain, which presented its proposal in 2012 to double the pipeline.
The American oil company was hoping for approval within the next 15 months from the Canada Energy Regulator (at that time the National Energy Board) with a view to making the expansion of its pipeline operational towards the end of the year. year 2017 (new window).
Indigenous leaders marched with thousands to oppose the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion in Burnaby, British Columbia, in March 2018.
Photo: The Canadian Press / Darryl Dyck
A significant outcry, particularly in British Columbia (new window)complicated Kinder Morgan’s initial schedule.
Even once purchased by the federal government of Justin Trudeau in 2018, Trans Mountain encountered numerous complications (new window).
The groundbreaking for the project took place in 2019, and the state-owned company estimated that mechanical construction would be completed during the third quarter of 2023 for commissioning in the first quarter of 2024.
An imperative deadline for Trans Mountain: each month of delay would represent approximately $400 million in losses for the state-owned company.
34 billion $
The bill for the construction of the project was estimated, in 2013, at $5.4 billion by Kinder Morgan. The bill quickly increased over time: in 2017, Kinder Morgan revised its estimate upwards to $7.4 billion.
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It was once the federal government acquired the project that costs exploded by more than four times the latest Kinder Morgan forecast, for a total bill estimated at more than $34 billion. (new window).
156 terms
Trans Mountain is subject to 156 conditions (new window). These vary according to the themes of safety, environment and integrity and some apply according to the life cycle of the project.
The Canada Energy Regulator underlined the importance of these conditions for approval of the project by Ottawa.
To these conditions are also added 16 recommendations. These were proposed following a decision by the Federal Court of Appeal (new window) which sent the federal government back to the drawing board to correct one’s faults
by invalidating the first authorization of the project.
The court assessed that the Canada Energy Regulator had not sufficiently consulted the indigenous communities affected by the project.
The Federal Court of Appeal also determined that the Canada Energy Regulator had made a crucial mistake
by omitting the possible impacts of vessel traffic linked to Trans Mountain activity on the environment and on the vulnerable population of killer whales in the area (new window).
