37 MARCH 2024 WorldWide Drilling Resource® Project Update for the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Adapted from Information by U.S. Energy Information Administration Work on Canada’s Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion project is over 98% complete. Once operational, the expansion will nearly triple the pipeline’s current 300,000 barrels per day (b/d) capacity to move crude oil from oil sands in landlocked Alberta, to Canada’s Pacific Coast for export to new customers in Asia, or along the U.S. West Coast. The existing Trans Mountain Pipeline currently offers one avenue for waterborne crude oil exports out of Canada by moving crude oil from Edmonton in Alberta, to Burnaby, a port near Vancouver on the coast of British Columbia. The Canadian government acquired the pipeline from Kinder Morgan in 2018, and formed the Trans Mountain Corporation (TMC) to oversee and manage the pipeline and expansion project. The pipeline expansion, which consists of additional pipeline capacity running along a similar route to the current pipeline, has faced several legal challenges from environmental activists and Canadian First Nations groups. Canada’s crude oil production has steadily increased for most of the last 13 years. Canada’s average annual production of crude oil and condensate rose nearly 2.0 million b/d between 2009 and 2019. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic led to decreased production as crude oil prices declined significantly. Since then, Canada’s production has resumed its growth trend. In fact, Canada’s production exceeded prepandemic levels in 2022, when crude oil and condensate production averaged 4.9 million b/d, according to data from the Canada Energy Regulator. Most new growth in Canada’s crude oil production is concentrated in Alberta. In 2022, Alberta’s crude oil production accounted for 82.7% of total crude oil production in Canada, up from 76.1% in 2012. Currently, more crude oil flows from Canada to the United States than to any other country by a wide margin; U.S. imports from Canada have averaged about 3.7 million b/d since 2020, according to Petroleum Supply Monthly. U.S. crude oil imports from Canada accounted for about 79% of Canada’s total crude oil production during that time. Canada is also the largest source of crude oil imports to the United States, and these imports primarily flow to refineries in the Midwest and the U.S. Gulf Coast. G&O
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