B.C. eyes oil from Washington state

• B.C. will source its oil needs from the state of Washington should Alberta uses its new powers to throttle back oil shipments to the province, B.C. Attorney-General David Eby said Friday.

Eby said Victoria’s primary response to the law, which would allow Alberta to control the flow of oil, natural gas and refined products out of province, will be to file an immediate injunction. The Alberta law, passed this week, is a response to B.C.’s opposition to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

But the province also plans to backfill a shortage of fuels such as gasoline and diesel by buying from the U.S., and Eby said the provincial government is in discussions with Washington state in preparation.

“There has been work done with Washington state in identifying additional reserves that we might be able to use in the unlikely event that Alberta actually attempts to use this unconstitutional legislation,” he said.

Eby did not have specific figures on the province’s oil reserves and preparedness in case it needed to fuel ambulances or fire trucks during an oil flow restriction. Other B.C. government departments deferred questions around logistical preparedness to the attorneygeneral’s office.

“But the general consensus that the possibility of Alberta actually using this is highly speculative for a couple of reasons,” Eby said. “They’d have to get through convincing a court that they have the power to do this, which we don’t think they do. Secondly, they’d have to grapple with the impacts of that on their own industry.”

An Alberta government spokesperson said the province’s public service does not track fuel inventory levels in B.C. and is not looking to time its use of Bill 12 around a shortage.

There are a number of fuel terminals in B.C. operated by Calgary-based oil firms Suncor Energy Inc., Husky

Energy Inc. and Parkland Fuel Corp. Suncor, which owns Petro-Canada, operates four terminals in Nanaimo, Kamloops, Terrace and on the Burrard Inlet in Port Moody and Burnaby.

Husky operates gas stations throughout the province as well as a 13,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Prince George, which sources part of its oil from northeastern B.C.

There are also two oil-byrail facilities in Burnaby, capable of handling a total of 10,000 bpd, according to the National Energy Board.