As provinces and industry push for new pipelines, regulator says expanded Trans Mountain still has capacity

Crude oil tankers docked at the Trans Mountain Westridge Marine Terminal, where crude oil from the expanded Trans Mountain Pipeline is loaded onto tankers, in Burnaby, B.C., in June, 2024.

As Alberta, Saskatchewan and the oil and gas industry push for a new pipeline to transport fossil fuels to coastal ports for export, a new analysis from the Canada Energy Regulator shows there is still excess capacity on the expanded Trans Mountain system.

Over all, however, oil export pipeline capacity from Western Canada continues to be highly utilized, the CER says. And oil production from the oil sands is only projected to increase .

Shippers with long-term contracts make up the bulk of Trans Mountain’s customers. Numbers from the CER show they have taken advantage of the newly opened capaci