Kinder Morgan makes fresh case for pipeline benefits
CALGARY — Kinder Morgan has filed new reports to the National Energy Board touting the economic benefits of its proposed Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, replacing evidence that the regulator ordered removed from the record last month.
The filings include an analysis by Dallas consulting firm Muse Stancil and an updated Conference Board of Canada tally of the project’s broader economic spinoffs.
Muse Stancil estimates $73.5 billion (in 2012 dollars) will be added to producers’ bottom lines over 20 years if the project goes ahead.
The $5.4-billion project would nearly triple the amount of crude shipped on the Trans Mountain pipeline between the Edmonton area and the Lower Mainland, enabling exports to lucrative Asian markets. The financial boost to producers from being able to access new markets is expected to ripple through the rest of the Canadian economy, according to the Conference Board analysis.
The total fiscal benefit to Canada as a result of the improved producer “net backs” is pegged at nearly $24 billion over two decades, with $14 billion flowing into Alberta government coffers and $1.4 billion for B.C. Last month, the NEB panel weighing the $5.4-billion project said any evidence prepared by Steven Kelly, then a consultant with IHS Global Canada, must be removed from the regulatory application.
That’s because Kelly has been appointed to a seven-year term at the National Energy Board starting on Oct. 13.
The evidence Kinder Morgan had to replace ended up being “narrow in scope” — about 64 pages out of the original 15,000 filed.