NorthAmOil: Trans Mountain pipeline expansion to start up May 1

Trans Mountain Corp, the owner of the Trans Mountain pipeline, has announced that the start-up of the CAD34bn ($22.2bn) project’s expansion will be May 1.

Egress is currently limited from the landlocked oilsands in Alberta. The line will be the first major pipeline to be built in Canada in more than a decade.

The expansion, dubbed TMX, will nearly triple the oil carried from the oilsands across the Rockies to British Columbia’s Pacific Coast to 890,000 barrels per day (bpd). Trans Mountain is the only pipeline to Canada’s West Coast.

It ran into various delays, such as having to drill through hard rock, court challenges and environmental issues. Some Indigenous communities have supported the project while other have opposed it.