CALGARY, Alberta, Sept. 10 (UPI) — Refineries in Ontario have shifted from foreign to domestic supplies of crude oil in the 14 years ending in 2014, the national energy regulator said.
The National Energy Board attributed pipeline developments from Enbridge for the turnaround beginning in 2000, when 46 percent of the crude oil refined in Ontario came from foreign supplies. By 2014, foreign supplies were nearly eliminated from the provincial downstream sector as more domestic crude oil moved east.
In the five years ending in 2010, Enbridge expanded a pipeline system to move more western Canadian crude oil to Ontario and U.S. refineries so that, by 2010, domestic crude accounted for 79 percent of Ontario feedstock. Since 2013, Enbridge completed further pipeline expansions and overhauls.
“By 2014, almost all of the crude oil for Ontario’s refineries came from western Canada,” the NEB said.
In October, pipeline planner TransCanada Corp. filed a formal application for its Energy East pipeline project for eastern Canadian oil refineries.
The Energy East oil pipeline involves the construction of a new 930-mile segment and converting 1,800 miles of gas line for oil service. It’s designed to carry 1.1 million barrels of oil per day from Alberta and Saskatchewan to Canadian refineries on the eastern coast.
TransCanada said Energy East would make eastern Canadian refineries more competitive because they’d be sourced by domestic crude and bring in more than $7 billion in tax revenues during its first 20 years of operation.
TransCanada President and Chief Executive Officer Russ Girling said in support of the project that it would “eliminate the need” for imports because of new oil for regional refineries.
Critics of the project said it’s filled with empty promises because it would serve primarily as an export pipeline.
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