Reuters: Regulatory News: UPDATE 1-Kinder delays decision on Trans Mountain expansion

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UPDATE 1-Kinder delays decision on Trans Mountain expansion Mar 27th 2012, 20:36 Tue Mar 27, 2012 4:36pm EDT * Extends open season for expanded pipeline to April 10 * Expects to decision on size of expansion later in the spring CALGARY, Alberta, March 27 (Reuters) - Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP said on Tuesday it will delay making a final decision on whether to double the size of its 300,000 barrel per day Trans Mountain oil pipeline as it extends a search for customers willing to sign up for space on the line. The company said it will extend an "open season" for the project - during which shippers sign binding contracts to move oil on the Edmonton, Alberta, to Vancouver line - until April 10. The extension means the company will not meet its target of making a final decision on the C$3.8 billion ($3.83 billion) project by the end of this month as it assesses whether a 300,000 bpd expansion is too much space or too little. The "scope of (the) open season was based on 600,000 bpd design but we have always said it could differ depending on shipper commitments, Andy Galarnyk, a spokesman for the company, said in an email. "Based upon our current scoping and level of commitments, we have room for more participation," . He said that the company expected to release more information on the final size of the expansion later this spring. Canadian oil producers have been urging development of a line to let them tap high-paying Asian markets and U.S. West Coast refineries. The majority of Canada's oil exports currently flow to the U.S. Midwest, where a glut of crude at the Cushing, Oklahoma, storage hub has depressed prices. Production from Alberta's oil sands, the world's third largest crude oil reserve, is set to nearly double to 3 million barrels per day by 2020. Trans Mountain, which takes oil to the port of Vancouver and refineries in British Columbia and Washington state, is the only pipeline carrying Alberta oil sands crude to the Pacific. Space on the line has been rationed for months as customers look to ship more oil than the line can handle. But the project, which could be complete in 2017, faces a rival proposal. Enbridge Inc is seeking approval for its 525,000 bpd Northern Gateway pipeline to take oil sands crude to a deepwater port at Kitimat, on British Columbia's northern coast. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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