Canadian Regulator Approves Westcoast’s Montney Pipe
Canada’s National Energy Board (NEB), in a letter decision released December 11, has approved Westcoast Energy’s application for its C$500mn (US$373mn) Spruce Ridge expansion program in the Peace River area of northeastern BC, designed to increase take-away capacity from the Montney shale gas region by an estimated 402mn ft3/day.
The program consists of two looping projects: the Aitken Creep loop and the Chetwynd loop. Aitken Creek consists of 13 km of pipe and would provide up to about 60mn ft3/day of firm transportation capacity, while the Chetwynd loop consists of 25 km of pipe and would provide up to 360mn ft3/day of firm transportation capacity.
Additional compression capacity will also be added at two existing compressor stations.
The project, which is set for completion in 2020, will enable Westcoast to provide increased transportation capacity to the Nova Gas Transmission Limited (NGTL) system, which serves markets in Alberta, elsewhere in Canada and in the US, and to its own Westcoast T-South system, which provides access to markets in BC, the US Pacific Northwest and California.
Westcoast Energy, trading as Spectra Energy, is owned by Canadian mid-stream company Enbridge.