Oil firm TransCanada has announced that the $11.6 billion Energy East line will carry up to 1.1 million barrels of oil per day, replacing oil imported to eastern Canada with a leftover surplus to export across the Atlantic. The Energy East pipeline would run from Hardisty, Alberta, to a new deep-water marine terminal in St John, New Brunswick.
On Thursday, TransCanada Chief Executive Russ Girling hailed the "many benefits across Canada" the pipeline would bring. "This is an historic opportunity to connect the oil resources of western Canada to the consumers of eastern Canada, creating jobs, tax revenue and energy security for all Canadians for decades to come.”
Mr Girling also said the project would supply refineries in eastern Canada, which currently process 750,000 barrels of imported foreign oil each day. He said the company would build its pipeline with a "singular focus" on safety.
The Energy East pipeline would link about 3,000 kilometres (1,864 miles) of an already-built natural gas pipeline with about 1,400 kilometres (870 miles) of newly constructed pipeline, TransCanada said. The company projects it will be piping oil to Quebec by late 2017, and to New Brunswick by 2018.
