Enbridge Inc.’s Line 3 pipeline replacement project, a critical piece of export infrastructure for Canada’s energy sector, will be in service on Oct. 1.
The pipeline giant said Wednesday the 1,765-km Line 3 — which will carry oil from rural Alberta to Enbridge’s terminal in Wisconsin — is “substantially complete.”
“After more than eight years of many people working together, extensive community engagement, and thorough environmental, regulatory and legal review, we are pleased that Line 3 is complete and will soon deliver the low cost and reliable energy that people depend on every day,” said Enbridge chief executive Al Monaco in a news release.
“From day one, this project has been about modernizing our system and improving safety and reliability for the benefit of communities, the environment and our customers.”
Line 3 starts in Hardisty, Alta. and clips a corner of North Dakota before crossing Minnesota en route to Enbridge’s terminal in Superior, Wis.
The last leg of the $9.3-billion project to be completed was the 542-kilometre Minnesota segment.
The other parts of the pipeline had already been placed into service, but in Minnesota Enbridge faced court challenges and protests by environmental and Indigenous groups.
Opponents of the project said the Line 3 expansion will accelerate climate change and also poses a risk of oil spills in environmentally sensitive areas.
They said Alberta’s oil sands extractions — a heavier crude that consumes more energy and generates more carbon dioxide in the refining process than lighter oil — making it an even bigger contributor to climate change.
Members of First Nations, environmentalists and others also argued the line would violate treaty rights and risk spills in waters where Native Americans harvest wild rice.
More than 900 people have been arrested or ticketed at protests along the route since construction began.
Enbridge said the project was necessary to replace and expand a deteriorating pipeline built in the 1960s, which could carry only half its original volume of oil.
In June, Enbridge was handed a victory by the Minnesota Court of Appeals, which affirmed the approvals granted by independent regulators that allowed construction on the Minnesota leg to begin last December.
The state-of-the-art, thicker-walled pipe used for the replacement will ensure a “safe, reliable supply of North American crude oil to U.S. refineries,” the company said Wednesday.
The Line 3 project is expected to add about 370,000 barrels per day of crude oil export capacity from Western Canada into the U.S. The process of filling the line starts in North Dakota on Friday, Enbridge said.
The main remaining tasks are cleanup and restoration along the route, said Leo Golden, an Enbridge vice president in charge of the project.
Some parts have already been completely restored with crops and native grasses growing on them, he said. But construction mats still need to be removed from wetlands and other cleanup work will continue through next summer.
“We’re not done restoring until we go to the landowners and we walk the land with them and they say `Yes, you’re done’ and sign off,” Golden said.
Golden said they don’t expect to get the final signoffs from landowners along the route until next summer.
Canada’s energy sector has been hamstrung by a lack of pipeline infrastructure in recent years.
An IHS Markit report from December found that delays in the expansion of the export pipeline capacity have contributed to lower prices in Western Canada, representing a loss of $17 billion for the crude oil industry over the last five years.
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In June, TC Energy Corp. cancelled its Keystone XL Pipeline project, leaving Enbridge’s Line 3 project and the Trans Mountain Pipeline project (owned by the federal government) as Canada’s main pipeline projects.
The Trans Mountain pipeline project is expected to be in service by December 2022.
Between the two projects, the total export addition of nearly one million bpd is expected to account for Western Canada’s oil export needs at least through the first half of the decade.
— With files from Steve Karnowski, The Associated Press
© 2021 The Canadian Press
Line 3 pipeline replacement ‘substantially complete,’ oil will flow Friday: Enbridge - Global News
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