MONTREAL - It’s 30 inches in diameter, made of steel,
and runs from Montreal East, across Laval to
Terrebonne and then west through Quebec to North
Westover, Ont., 639 kilometres away.
In operation since 1976, Enbridge’s Line 9B pipeline
was first used to carry crude oil east to Montreal, and
since 1999 has carried crude oil west from Montreal to
refineries in Ontario.
The pipeline is under scrutiny now because Enbridge
wants to use it to carry oil from Western Canada to
Quebec, to Suncor Energy Inc.’s refinery in Montreal or
transported by boat down the St. Lawrence River to
Lévis, where Ultramar Ltd. operates the country’s
second-largest refinery.
Enbridge has asked the National Energy Board to
approve a $129-million project to reverse the flow in
the pipeline and increase its capacity from 240,000 to
300,000 barrels per day. It has also asked to be
allowed to ship heavy crude oil, or bitumen, through
the pipeline.
To the oil companies, Enbridge’s plan will mean big
savings. Suncor and Ultramar stand to save millions of
dollars a day by replacing some of the foreign oil they
buy with Canadian oil.
In addition, a steady stream of Canadian oil will help
protect existing local jobs, says Robert Coutu, the
mayor of Montreal East, where 800 people used to
work at a Shell refinery that closed in 2010.
But environmental groups in Quebec, Ontario and New
England worry that reversing Line 9B’s flow will
hamper efforts to slow climate change and poses too
much of a risk of a spill that could contaminate
waterways that empty into Lake Ontario and the St.
Lawrence.
While Quebec Environment Minister Yves-François
Blanchet says the province will study the project,
federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver has said
it will have no environmental impact because it will
only change the direction of an existing pipeline.
On Thursday, the NEB is holding an information
meeting in Montreal to explain the regulatory process.
The federal agency is expected to make a decision on
Enbridge’s proposal by March 2014.
Crude oil comes to Quebec’s two refineries on tanker
ships from North Africa, the Middle East and the North
Sea to the port in Lévis, south of Quebec City, or via
pipelines from Portland, Me., to Montreal.
Foreign oil costs Quebec refiners about $20 a barrel
more than Canadian oil. Quebec’s two refineries can
process 400,000 barrels of oil a day, and replacing
half of it with Canadian oil could save the companies
millions of dollars a day.
Enbridge’s plan would give Ultramar a reliable and
constant supply of Canadian oil, said Michel Martin,
Ultramar’s director of public and government affairs.
“Having access in a large proportion to a domestic
source is quite attractive,” Martin said. “(Line 9B) would
be a very, very important project for us, if it
materializes. We hope it will.”
For the last three years, about 64,000 barrels of crude
oil per day have been shipped from Montreal to
Ontario on Line 9B, which has a capacity of 240,000
barrels per day, Enbridge says.
If the NEB approves the project, Line 9B would carry
light crude oil from Alberta, Saskatchewan and North
Dakota to Montreal, said Eric Prud’homme, the
company’s public-affairs manager for Eastern Canada.
It could also carry heavy crude or bitumen, from the
oilsands. The pipeline will not carry raw bitumen,
Prud’homme said. It would be processed to remove
sand, water and sediment before being shipped
through the pipeline, he said.
If the project is approved, Ultramar plans to transport
the crude oil by ship from Montreal to the Lévis
refinery, Martin said. The company would use two new
ships with a capacity of 350,000 barrels to make the
trip about once a week, he said.
Ultramar ships gasoline, diesel and heating oil from its
Lévis refinery to its Montreal terminal — the largest in
the country — through a pipeline south of the St.
Lawrence River. Its products are distributed in the
Montreal region, in Eastern Ontario and northern New
England, Martin said.
Suncor did not respond to repeated interview requests
from The Gazette.
The idea of shipping heavy crude oil through a pipeline
built in the 1970s has environmental groups up in
arms. They say heavy crude is more corrosive than
light, and increases the risk of a leak from the
pipeline. They point to a 2010 spill in which more than
3 million litres of crude oil leaked from an Enbridge
pipeline near the Kalamazoo River in Michigan.
An investigation by the U.S. National Transportation
Safety Board said there were “pervasive organizational
failures” on Enbridge’s part, that, combined with weak
federal regulations, led to the pipeline rupture. The
safety-board chairman said Enbridge employees acted
like “Keystone cops” as the spill went undetected for
more than 17 hours.
“A spill from the pipeline could have a huge impact on
Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence,” said Adam Scott of
the Ontario environmental group Environmental
Defence. “This is an old crude oil pipeline, and we’re
really concerned because they want to change what’s
in it.”
In western Quebec, the mayor of the tiny community of
Ste. Justine de Newton has the same worries. Line 9B
crosses through the municipality, near the Ontario
border, and Mayor Patricia Domingos said a spill could
devastate her community if the water table were
contaminated.
“We want to know what the risks of a spill are,” she
said. “If there was a problem with the water, we’d have
to shut all the houses in Ste. Justine because a house
without water is no longer a home.”
While Enbridge said it will mainly transport light crude
oil in the pipeline, Scott says bitumen is more
corrosive and more likely to cause a spill. Unlike
conventional oil, bitumen sinks in water, he said.
“It could cause much longer-lasting environmental
problems and is harder to clean up,” he said.
Environmental Defence plans to ask the Ontario
government to conduct an environmental assessment
of the project, Scott said.
Enbridge apologized for the Michigan spill and
recognized that mistakes were made, Prud’homme
said. More than $800 million has been spent so far on
the cleanup, he said.
“We took full responsibility for the event that took
place,” Prud’homme said. “It was a learning experience
for us. We have a zero tolerance for spills and that’s
our goal.”
Enbridge monitors its pipeline infrastructure around
the clock, checking things like pressure that could
indicate a problem in a pipeline, Prud’homme said. It
checks the conditions of pipelines by running
equipment through them looking for dents, cracks and
corrosion, he said.
And he said the federal National Resources
Department has determined that heavy crude is not
more corrosive than light crude.
In Montreal East, where Line 9B ends, Mayor Robert
Coutu said he met with Enbridge to discuss the
project, and is not worried about a spill. Coutu said he
believes it’s safer to ship petroleum products by
pipeline than trains or ships. He said he asked
Enbridge to ensure a Kalamazoo-like spill will not
happen in Montreal East.
“We’re a city that is full of pipelines, and we’re used to
living with that,” Coutu said. “I’m not worried.”
Steven Guilbeault of the environmental group Équiterre
doesn’t share Coutu’s confidence in the safety of the
pipeline, and says he doesn’t believe the oil Enbridge
will ship is destined to be used by Quebecers. Like
other environmentalists in Ontario and New England,
Guilbeault says the Line 9B reversal project is part of a
plan to ship oil from the oilsands to the United States.
In 2008, Enbridge had proposed a project called
Trailbreaker, which involved switching the flow in Line
9 and a pipeline between Montreal and Portland that
carries crude oil from Portland to Montreal. Enbridge
abandoned the project in 2009, citing the economic
downturn. Moving oilsands oil to the Atlantic coast
would open up new markets, potentially increasing the
amount of fossil fuel burned around the world,
Guilbeault said. That would mean higher emissions of
greenhouse gases, the pollution that causes climate
change, he said.
“We are already living in the era of climate change, and
the question is: are we going to resign ourselves to the
problem, or are we going to deal with so we can try to
pass on a healthy planet to our children and
grandchildren? At the heart of that question is our
dependence on petroleum,” Guilbeault told a group of
about 50 people at an information meeting about the
Line 9B project in Pointe-aux-Trembles this month
organized by Équiterre.
While Quebec is known for its hydroelectricity
production, in 2009, 39 per cent of the province’s
energy needs were met by petroleum products, and
another 40 per cent by electricity, according to
Quebec’s Natural Resources Department.
Enbridge’s Prud’homme says his company has no
plans to revive the Trailbreaker project.
“That project is dead,” he said. “The success of the
reversal of Line 9B does not depend on any other
project. It’s a stand-alone project.”
But environmental groups are skeptical, after Enbridge
last year got NEB approval to switch the flow in its Line
9A pipeline, which connects North Westover with
Sarnia, Ont. If the NEB gives the Line 9B project the
green light, only the Montreal-Portland part of the
abandoned Trailbreaker project would remain to be
done.
Portland-Montreal Pipelines Ltd., which owns the
pipeline between Montreal and Portland, says it has no
current plans to reverse the flow of its pipeline, but it
would consider it if there was demand. Environmental
groups in New England believe that it will happen, and
in January organized a rally with more than 1,000
people in Portland against shipping oil from the
oilsands through New England.
Canada’s consul-general in Boston, former Prince
Edward Island premier Pat Binns, along with oil-
industry representatives, have attended meetings in
New England where town councils are considering
whether to oppose the transportation of oilsands oil
through their communities.
In December, the city council of Burlington, Vt., passed
a motion declaring its opposition to oil from the
oilsands in Vermont, saying it has deep concerns
about “risks of such transport for public health and
safety, property values, and our natural resources.” In
Portland, the city council is considering banning the
use of oilsands oil for city use.
Prud’homme said there is no getting around the fact
that there is demand for petroleum products, and that
it would take years to transition away from fossil fuels.
“Right now, there is a need. We would not be carrying
that product if there wasn’t a need from our
customers,” he said. “The reality is that tomorrow
night, everybody will not park their cars and never use
them for the rest of their lives, and every industry will
not shut down.”
mbeaudin@montrealgazette.com
Read more:
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Tempest pip
eline project/7992810/story.html#ixzz2N4AxawPC
and runs from Montreal East, across Laval to
Terrebonne and then west through Quebec to North
Westover, Ont., 639 kilometres away.
In operation since 1976, Enbridge’s Line 9B pipeline
was first used to carry crude oil east to Montreal, and
since 1999 has carried crude oil west from Montreal to
refineries in Ontario.
The pipeline is under scrutiny now because Enbridge
wants to use it to carry oil from Western Canada to
Quebec, to Suncor Energy Inc.’s refinery in Montreal or
transported by boat down the St. Lawrence River to
Lévis, where Ultramar Ltd. operates the country’s
second-largest refinery.
Enbridge has asked the National Energy Board to
approve a $129-million project to reverse the flow in
the pipeline and increase its capacity from 240,000 to
300,000 barrels per day. It has also asked to be
allowed to ship heavy crude oil, or bitumen, through
the pipeline.
To the oil companies, Enbridge’s plan will mean big
savings. Suncor and Ultramar stand to save millions of
dollars a day by replacing some of the foreign oil they
buy with Canadian oil.
In addition, a steady stream of Canadian oil will help
protect existing local jobs, says Robert Coutu, the
mayor of Montreal East, where 800 people used to
work at a Shell refinery that closed in 2010.
But environmental groups in Quebec, Ontario and New
England worry that reversing Line 9B’s flow will
hamper efforts to slow climate change and poses too
much of a risk of a spill that could contaminate
waterways that empty into Lake Ontario and the St.
Lawrence.
While Quebec Environment Minister Yves-François
Blanchet says the province will study the project,
federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver has said
it will have no environmental impact because it will
only change the direction of an existing pipeline.
On Thursday, the NEB is holding an information
meeting in Montreal to explain the regulatory process.
The federal agency is expected to make a decision on
Enbridge’s proposal by March 2014.
Crude oil comes to Quebec’s two refineries on tanker
ships from North Africa, the Middle East and the North
Sea to the port in Lévis, south of Quebec City, or via
pipelines from Portland, Me., to Montreal.
Foreign oil costs Quebec refiners about $20 a barrel
more than Canadian oil. Quebec’s two refineries can
process 400,000 barrels of oil a day, and replacing
half of it with Canadian oil could save the companies
millions of dollars a day.
Enbridge’s plan would give Ultramar a reliable and
constant supply of Canadian oil, said Michel Martin,
Ultramar’s director of public and government affairs.
“Having access in a large proportion to a domestic
source is quite attractive,” Martin said. “(Line 9B) would
be a very, very important project for us, if it
materializes. We hope it will.”
For the last three years, about 64,000 barrels of crude
oil per day have been shipped from Montreal to
Ontario on Line 9B, which has a capacity of 240,000
barrels per day, Enbridge says.
If the NEB approves the project, Line 9B would carry
light crude oil from Alberta, Saskatchewan and North
Dakota to Montreal, said Eric Prud’homme, the
company’s public-affairs manager for Eastern Canada.
It could also carry heavy crude or bitumen, from the
oilsands. The pipeline will not carry raw bitumen,
Prud’homme said. It would be processed to remove
sand, water and sediment before being shipped
through the pipeline, he said.
If the project is approved, Ultramar plans to transport
the crude oil by ship from Montreal to the Lévis
refinery, Martin said. The company would use two new
ships with a capacity of 350,000 barrels to make the
trip about once a week, he said.
Ultramar ships gasoline, diesel and heating oil from its
Lévis refinery to its Montreal terminal — the largest in
the country — through a pipeline south of the St.
Lawrence River. Its products are distributed in the
Montreal region, in Eastern Ontario and northern New
England, Martin said.
Suncor did not respond to repeated interview requests
from The Gazette.
The idea of shipping heavy crude oil through a pipeline
built in the 1970s has environmental groups up in
arms. They say heavy crude is more corrosive than
light, and increases the risk of a leak from the
pipeline. They point to a 2010 spill in which more than
3 million litres of crude oil leaked from an Enbridge
pipeline near the Kalamazoo River in Michigan.
An investigation by the U.S. National Transportation
Safety Board said there were “pervasive organizational
failures” on Enbridge’s part, that, combined with weak
federal regulations, led to the pipeline rupture. The
safety-board chairman said Enbridge employees acted
like “Keystone cops” as the spill went undetected for
more than 17 hours.
“A spill from the pipeline could have a huge impact on
Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence,” said Adam Scott of
the Ontario environmental group Environmental
Defence. “This is an old crude oil pipeline, and we’re
really concerned because they want to change what’s
in it.”
In western Quebec, the mayor of the tiny community of
Ste. Justine de Newton has the same worries. Line 9B
crosses through the municipality, near the Ontario
border, and Mayor Patricia Domingos said a spill could
devastate her community if the water table were
contaminated.
“We want to know what the risks of a spill are,” she
said. “If there was a problem with the water, we’d have
to shut all the houses in Ste. Justine because a house
without water is no longer a home.”
While Enbridge said it will mainly transport light crude
oil in the pipeline, Scott says bitumen is more
corrosive and more likely to cause a spill. Unlike
conventional oil, bitumen sinks in water, he said.
“It could cause much longer-lasting environmental
problems and is harder to clean up,” he said.
Environmental Defence plans to ask the Ontario
government to conduct an environmental assessment
of the project, Scott said.
Enbridge apologized for the Michigan spill and
recognized that mistakes were made, Prud’homme
said. More than $800 million has been spent so far on
the cleanup, he said.
“We took full responsibility for the event that took
place,” Prud’homme said. “It was a learning experience
for us. We have a zero tolerance for spills and that’s
our goal.”
Enbridge monitors its pipeline infrastructure around
the clock, checking things like pressure that could
indicate a problem in a pipeline, Prud’homme said. It
checks the conditions of pipelines by running
equipment through them looking for dents, cracks and
corrosion, he said.
And he said the federal National Resources
Department has determined that heavy crude is not
more corrosive than light crude.
In Montreal East, where Line 9B ends, Mayor Robert
Coutu said he met with Enbridge to discuss the
project, and is not worried about a spill. Coutu said he
believes it’s safer to ship petroleum products by
pipeline than trains or ships. He said he asked
Enbridge to ensure a Kalamazoo-like spill will not
happen in Montreal East.
“We’re a city that is full of pipelines, and we’re used to
living with that,” Coutu said. “I’m not worried.”
Steven Guilbeault of the environmental group Équiterre
doesn’t share Coutu’s confidence in the safety of the
pipeline, and says he doesn’t believe the oil Enbridge
will ship is destined to be used by Quebecers. Like
other environmentalists in Ontario and New England,
Guilbeault says the Line 9B reversal project is part of a
plan to ship oil from the oilsands to the United States.
In 2008, Enbridge had proposed a project called
Trailbreaker, which involved switching the flow in Line
9 and a pipeline between Montreal and Portland that
carries crude oil from Portland to Montreal. Enbridge
abandoned the project in 2009, citing the economic
downturn. Moving oilsands oil to the Atlantic coast
would open up new markets, potentially increasing the
amount of fossil fuel burned around the world,
Guilbeault said. That would mean higher emissions of
greenhouse gases, the pollution that causes climate
change, he said.
“We are already living in the era of climate change, and
the question is: are we going to resign ourselves to the
problem, or are we going to deal with so we can try to
pass on a healthy planet to our children and
grandchildren? At the heart of that question is our
dependence on petroleum,” Guilbeault told a group of
about 50 people at an information meeting about the
Line 9B project in Pointe-aux-Trembles this month
organized by Équiterre.
While Quebec is known for its hydroelectricity
production, in 2009, 39 per cent of the province’s
energy needs were met by petroleum products, and
another 40 per cent by electricity, according to
Quebec’s Natural Resources Department.
Enbridge’s Prud’homme says his company has no
plans to revive the Trailbreaker project.
“That project is dead,” he said. “The success of the
reversal of Line 9B does not depend on any other
project. It’s a stand-alone project.”
But environmental groups are skeptical, after Enbridge
last year got NEB approval to switch the flow in its Line
9A pipeline, which connects North Westover with
Sarnia, Ont. If the NEB gives the Line 9B project the
green light, only the Montreal-Portland part of the
abandoned Trailbreaker project would remain to be
done.
Portland-Montreal Pipelines Ltd., which owns the
pipeline between Montreal and Portland, says it has no
current plans to reverse the flow of its pipeline, but it
would consider it if there was demand. Environmental
groups in New England believe that it will happen, and
in January organized a rally with more than 1,000
people in Portland against shipping oil from the
oilsands through New England.
Canada’s consul-general in Boston, former Prince
Edward Island premier Pat Binns, along with oil-
industry representatives, have attended meetings in
New England where town councils are considering
whether to oppose the transportation of oilsands oil
through their communities.
In December, the city council of Burlington, Vt., passed
a motion declaring its opposition to oil from the
oilsands in Vermont, saying it has deep concerns
about “risks of such transport for public health and
safety, property values, and our natural resources.” In
Portland, the city council is considering banning the
use of oilsands oil for city use.
Prud’homme said there is no getting around the fact
that there is demand for petroleum products, and that
it would take years to transition away from fossil fuels.
“Right now, there is a need. We would not be carrying
that product if there wasn’t a need from our
customers,” he said. “The reality is that tomorrow
night, everybody will not park their cars and never use
them for the rest of their lives, and every industry will
not shut down.”
mbeaudin@montrealgazette.com
Read more:
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Tempest pip
eline project/7992810/story.html#ixzz2N4AxawPC
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