TransCanada Commissions Last Piece of 2017 Expansion
Canadian gas pipeline TransCanada said April 2 it has placed the Northwest Mainline Loop-Boundary Lake pipeline into service, completing the final section of its 2017 expansion program on the Nova Gas Transmission Limited (NGTL) system in Alberta.
The $1.7bn expansion program added about 230 km of new pipe and additional compression facilities and increased NGTL system capacity by some 500mn ft3/day. It generated about $800mn in labour income and will add about $1.8bn to Canada’s gross domestic product.
“We continue to focus on optimizing the competitiveness of the NGTL system and services and expanding our established transportation network to connect growing volumes of Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin natural gas to markets across North America,” said Tracy Robinson, TransCanada’s senior vice-president and general manager, Canadian Gas Pipelines. “Projects like the 2017 NGTL expansion program demonstrate our strong focus on future growth opportunities for producers and we are working with industry to address their needs for long-term, safe and reliable transportation service.”
The 2017 expansion program is part of a broader $7bn investment in the NGTL system that will, subject to regulatory approval, increase delivery capacity by some 2.5bn ft3/day by 2021.
Producers, however, are still awaiting commitments from the company to expand Mainline capacity downstream of AECO in order to reach markets in eastern Canada and the mid-continent US. The lack of sufficient take-away capacity has been a major contributor to price weakness in Alberta, which at times last summer pushed the benchmark AECO price into negative territory.