Canada’s Regulator Approves Enbridge Gas Projects
The Canada Energy Regulator (CER) has approved a suite of compression and equipment upgrade projects on Westcoast Energy’s T-South system in BC that will improve overall reliability and add 190mn ft3/day of incremental firm service capacity. Westcoast Energy, doing business as Spectra Energy, is part of the Enbridge group of companies.
The orders approving the projects – which will cost an estimated C$740mn (US$558mn) – were handed down by the CER on September 26.
The projects include the installation of five new compressor units at three existing compressor stations and equipment upgrades at three other stations. Together, the projects will improve system reliability, allow the reinstatement of 90mn ft3/day of capacity that was removed due to reliability issues and add another 100mn ft3/day of new firm-service capacity, primarily for Montney gas production.
The entire T-South system, which extends from Station 2 west of Chetwynd in north-central BC to a connection with the US interstate system at Huntingdon, on the BC-Washington border, has a design capacity of about 1.44bn ft3/day, but is now operating at about 1.35bn ft3/day due to the reliability issues.
An open season in 2017 attracted firm service bids totalling nearly 620mn ft3/day, a response Westcoast said was “an indication of the significant value associated with the estimated level of capacity available in the open season.”
The approved facilities are expected to be in service by late 2021, Enbridge says on its website.