Enbridge says it’s not willing to take on development risk of Alberta pipeline project

Source: PedanticQuebecer

9 Comments

  1. JackLaytonsMoustache on

    This is going to be really interesting to watch develop. Will there actually be no private sector proponent?

    And, if that’d the case, how long until people start calling for the government to fund it instead? Because we know folks like Smith aren’t just going to say “well I guess that’s, that!” and move on. She wants a pipeline. 

  2. I can’t wait to hear why this is Justin Trudeau’s fault. He probably should have bought more pipelines. It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the regular rumblings about separation from the party in power in Alberta at the moment. It’s got to be Ottawa’s fault somehow.

  3. For the Albertan proponents of the pipeline, championing Alberta rights, I don’t understand how they square the circle of then effectively saying FU to BC and expecting the federal government to override BC’s rights.

  4. There’s a shocker…

    Albertans want a pipeline, they better loosen the purse strings to get ‘er done. Because it seems private business wants the government to pay for it (BC is out, and so too are the feds) and then suck up all the profits with sharing just a little bit with Alberta and have Alberta not share with anyone else.

    F that.

  5. >“I don’t think investors or the infrastructure companies should be taking on the risk of development in jurisdictions that have historically created a challenge,” Mr. Ebel told analysts on an earnings call.

    >“So that’s not the type of risk that we’re looking to take on at this time. We don’t need to with all the other opportunities.”

    >“It’s not so much about the signals and the speeches. It’s more about the actions and the results,” he said.

    This is what I’ve been saying the whole time. After the last decade of anti-pipeline policies and rhetoric private sector proponents are going to need the government to derisk any new oil pipeline projects. When billions have been lost on privately funded oil pipelines in this country I don’t blame them. One of the pipelines was outright cancelled by the current political party in power forcing a loss of around $600M to the company in the article.

  6. mummified_cosmonaut on

    Just a reminder, the Major Projects Office does nothing to fix an inherently broken system and only introduces new causes of action for litigious opponents of any project.

  7. No settlement has been reached over the usage rates and tolls users are refusing to pay on the current trans mountain line. I would be a bit leary about building another line too.

  8. Odd – why wouldn’t you want to invest in a project where the provincial leadership want to leave Canada and join the US?

  9. The MOU which AB agreed to stipulated that a pipeline project must be financed by the private sector. The AB govt is acting as the proponent to advance discussions and consultations, but they are required to have a private backer to finance and construct it. As suspected that seems to not exist. How long until the AB govt blames the federal govt with some new argument why they can’t find a private backer. Meanwhile if you’re the private sector there’s too much risk to pay for it yourself so the are happy to sit back and let this become more politically fraught until some level of government decides to pay for it. Then they can use it, make the profits and take none of the risk. I think that’s exactly what’s going to happen.

Leave A Reply