Northwest Coast News

Kitimat fishers, hunters ask NEB for special conditions on KM LNG export licence

The Kitimat Rod and Gun Club Tuesday asked the National Energy Board to place special conditions on the Kitimat LNG project so as, in the words of Rod and Gun representative Mike Langegger, to preserve “the fish and wildlife values of the northwest,” from the “cumulative effects” of industry encroaching on the wilderness. 

The board panel,which is considering the project’s application for a natural gas export licence,  allowed Langegger to testify early in the proceedings, now expected to run at least until Thursday, because he has other commitments.
In response to a specific question from Lynn Mercier, presiding member of the board panel, Langegger asked that the NEB require the KM LNG partners, energy giants Apache, Encana and EOG,  establish a joint committee with Kitimat residents, both First Nations and non-First Nations, to preserve the values of the wilderness around the liguified natural gas terminal.
He also asked that the energy companies create special funding “dedicated to fish, wildlife, and the environment…to maintain the fishing, hunting [and] recreational activities used by residents not just for now but for generations to come.” 
The liquified natural gas terminal is proposed for Bish Cove, down Douglas Channel from Kitimat, an area that is currently still largely wilderness. 
Langegger noted that crucial salmon breeding rivers flow into Bish Cove from the surrounding mountains. Bish Cove is also known as a habitat for deer and bears, both black bears and grizzlies.
He also asked that Kitimat residents continue to have access, as they do now, to the bush surrounding the proposed terminal “with no gates, no lockoffs.” Langegger complained to the board that Rio Tinto Alcan has, in recent years, restricted access to the Kitimat River estuary, near the aluminum plant, while once Kitimat residents had easy entry to the estuary.

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Langegger said that Rod and Gun members and other Kitimat residents fear the cumulative effects of the destruction of the wilderness, and specifically that some of the past practices of the forest industry, which he said had a “huge detrimental effect,” could be compounded by the Kitimat LNG plant and other projects.
 While not referring directly to the proposal, Langegger was bringing in the Enbridge Northern Gateway project, which is being considered in a separate National Energy Board proceeding. 
Lanegger told the NEB panel that he hoped that “the new generation of industries coming [would] accept those values” of fishing, hunting and recreation.
Mike Langegger of the Kitimat Rod and Gun
 club checks his notes while testifying before the NEB. (Robin Rowland/Northwest Coast Energy News)

TransCanada’s new pipeline project worries U.S. agency: Calgary Herald

Calgary Herald

 TransCanada’s new pipeline project worries U.S. agency

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has expressed new fears about the safety of Calgary-based TransCanada Corp.’s proposed Keystone XL oilsands pipeline, warning decision makers in the Obama administration to “carefully consider” whether the project’s proposed route through ecologically sensitive areas in the U.S. Great Plains is appropriate.

 In a letter to the State Department, the EPA said two recent leaks that shut down the existing Keystone pipeline highlight the need to require the Canadian company to take more rigorous steps to limit the threat of a major spill on the new line.

Apache secures 85% of Kitimat LNG sales (Corrected version)

As the National Energy Board hearings on the Kitimat LNG project opened, a principal owner of the project, Apache Corp is reported to be in final talks to sell up to 85 % of the capacity that could flow through the proposed port.

Bloomberg quoted Perth-based Mate’ Parentich, general manager of LNG marketing at Apache, said at the Asia Oil and Gas Conference in Kuala Lumpur Tuesday “We will offer stakes in upstream, midstream and downstream to buyers,” Parentich said. Shipments may start in 2015.”  Note: Bloomberg later moved a corrected and updated version of the story, noting no contracts have yet been signed.

Reuters quoted  Parentich as saying,  Asian utilities were also interested in buying equity stakes
in the Kitimat project.”We are speaking with the major utilities in the Asian Pacific region,” he said. The LNG will be sold on Japan Crude Cocktail (JCC) prices, he added.

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National Energy Board hearings on Kitimat LNG begin, expected to go rest of the week

National Energy Board hearings on the Kitimat LNG project opened Tuesday morning at the Riverlodge Community Centre with the usual legal introductions.

Lawyers for KM LNG asked the panel to postpone some more controversial  issues until Friday, as one of the lawyers said,  “parties were still in discussion” about certain matters.

The panel ruled that they would hear the contentious issues beginning Thursday morning.

Kitimat residents are complaining that the formal panel is  “mystifying,”  compared to the more open and public friendly joint review panel on the Enbridge Northern Gateway proposal last fall.

The current hearings are much more limited than the Enbridge Northern Gateway joint review.   That’s because these hearings are for an export licence only.  The Enbridge hearings are a facility hearing covering the whole project, because the oil sands are in Alberta and that pipeline would cross provincial boundaries.  At the moment, the KM LNG project is entirely within the province of BC and so the only matter under consideration is the export of natural gas.

Lawyers representing one of the KM LNG rivals tried to widen issues in  the morning session, but the NEB panel ruled while there would be some flexibility in questions about the project’s ownership and facilities, those questions had to be specific and narrow and relevant to the export licence.

Like theatregoers fleeing a  bad play at the first interval, many of the Kitimat residents who had shown up left at the first break, leaving the room to the lawyers and executives.

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TransCanada restarting Keystone oil pipeline: Reuters

Reuters 

TransCanada Corp (TRP.TO) was restoring operations on Sunday along the Keystone crude oil pipeline, one week after it was shut by a leak at a Kansas pumping station, a company spokesman said.

“We are in the process of restarting Keystone but I can’t give you a firm time line (on shipments) – likely imminent,” said TransCanada spokesman James Millar in statement.

The 591,000 barrel-per-day pipeline brings oil from Hardisty, Alberta to the Cushing, Oklahoma, oil hub.

TransCanada News Release



CALGARY, Alberta – May 13, 2011 – TransCanada Corporation (TSX, NYSE: TRP) (TransCanada) today announced it has re-started its Keystone Pipeline system. The line has been closed since May 7 following an above-ground incident at a pump station in Sargent County, North Dakota. 

More than 30 workers and their equipment have been on site at the Ludden Pump Station. Three hundred and ninety three barrels of oil have been recovered out of an estimated 500 barrels. Three hundred cubic yards of contaminated soil will be removed to an approved location and replaced with clean soil and gravel. The majority of the clean-up should be finished by the weekend.

 “TransCanada has taken this incident very seriously. We have fully communicated details regarding the incident and our corrective actions to our U.S. regulator PHMSA in ensuring the steps we have taken will enable us to safely re-start the pipeline,” said Russ Girling, TransCanada president and chief executive officer. “We reacted quickly, shutting down the line within a few minutes of detecting a drop in pressure, demonstrating our safety systems work effectively.”

Environmentalists pin hope on Obama opposition to pipeline project: Globe and Mail

Globe and Mail  

TransCanada Corp.’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline has become a litmus test in the U.S. battle over energy policy, as the environmental movement looks for reassurance that President Barack Obama is committed to combatting climate change.

 Prodded by congressional Republicans for a quick decision, the U.S. State Department concludes a comment period on Monday for its draft environmental impact statement on the XL project. 

 The final version – to be issued this summer – will likely conclude that the environmental concerns should not derail the project, despite troublesome leaks from the existing Keystone pipeline, which was shut last week after a small leak in Kansas.

US allows restart of Keystone pipeline: Reports

There are media reports that the United States Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration is permitting the restart of the Keystone pipeline after earlier saying it could not be restarted following a spill on May 29.

 

The Wall Street Journal reports

The U.S. Department of Transportation on Saturday approved TransCanada Corp.’s plan to restart its Keystone pipeline…. TransCanada on Saturday provided results of its testing along the Keystone and can restart it as soon as the morning of July 5, the PHMSA said in a letter to the company.

“Based on a review of the information submitted, the restart plan is approved,” PHMSA Central Region Director David Barrett said in the letter.

Reuters reports that pipeline could start as early as Sunday:

 

TransCanada Corp (TRP.TO) can restart its Keystone oil pipeline on Sunday, after the company satisfied a series of safety conditions following leaks that idled the key export line twice in less than a month, the U.S. pipeline safety regulator said on Saturday. 

 The U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said it approved resumption of crude flows from Canada on the pipeline after the agency evaluated the company’s restart plan and was satisfied safety requirements were met.

As of this posting there is no confirming information on the PHMSA or TransCanada websites.

US orders Keystone pipeline shut down after leaks: Globe and Mail

The Globe and Mail 

U.S. regulators have barred TransCanada Corp. from restarting its Keystone pipeline until the company can provide more proof that the system is safe, after several leaks in just a year of operation….. 

 Following at least three Keystone leaks in May, the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration took sudden action Friday. It issued a corrective action order that mandates 14 steps TransCanada must take before resuming operations, including demands for information, mechanical and metallurgical testing and a report on all issues and incidents on the line…. 

 For Canada’s oil and gas industry, the Keystone outage is just the latest in a series of pipeline-related headaches. A major Michigan spill on an Enbridge Inc. pipeline last summer resulted in rolling outages that lasted until this spring, as the company worked to fix problems on the line

Document
US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration order to shut down the Keystone pipeline (PDF)

NEB defends decision to withhold concerns about Enbridge pipeline: PostMedia

PostMedia News 

Canada’s federal energy regulator is defending its decision to keep Canadians in the dark about safety concerns with two major oil and gas pipelines. The concerns prompted the regulator to order pressure reductions on both lines last October, which are still in effect today. 

 The National Energy Board intervened in the operations of the two pipelines, owned by Enbridge and Trans-Northern, that travel through Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Edmonton and other regions in Western Canada. This came after a major rupture in Michigan involving another pipeline owned by Enbridge, which resulted in more than three million litres of crude oil leaking into the state’s Kalamazoo River. 

 [Board spokeswoman Stacey Squires] distanced herself from comments made one day earlier by her colleague, spokeswoman Carole Leger-Kubeczek, who had said the board was “not equipped” to post safety decisions “in terms of resources.” Squires said it was not a question of resources, but that it would be “very labour-intensive and require a lot of time” to provide all the information, including audits and inspections, regarding a company.

Keystone XL pipeline would accelerate U.S. addiction to Canadian oil: report: PostMedia News

PostMedia News

A controversial $13-billion pipeline project originating in Hardisty, Alta., will accelerate U.S. addiction to Canadian oil, says a newly-released report from Natural Resources Canada.

 “The Keystone XL project is seen as both furthering U.S. dependence on oil, and enabling more oilsands crude to enter the U.S. market,” said the document, released through access to information legislation… 

 “Although the Keystone XL pipeline was certificated in Canada in late April 2010, the company continues to wait for approvals in the U.S. before it can begin construction,” said the report, obtained by Ottawa researcher Ken Rubin. “This . . . has been caused by U.S. opposition to imports of ‘dirty’ Canadian crude oil from the ‘tar sands….'” 

 The Natural Resources Canada report, entitled “Current Pipeline Issues,” was finalized on Oct. 22, 2010, and listed senior bureaucrats… from the oil and gas policy and regulatory division of the department as its key contacts.