TC Energy Earns NGTL Expansion Approval
TC Energy on February 19 earned Canada Energy Regulator (CER) approval for a significant C$2.3bn (US$1.7bn) expansion of its Nova Gas Transmission Limited (NGTL) system in western Canada designed to reduce bottlenecks from the Montney shale gas play in northeastern BC and northwestern Alberta.
The CER is recommending that the Canadian cabinet of prime minister Justin Trudeau approve NGTL’s 2021 System Expansion Project, which includes 344 km of natural gas pipeline in eight loops and three compression station unit additions. The 330-page recommendation report from the CER is available here.
In its application, NGTL said the expanded facilities would help move growing supply from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin – expected to increase to 22.5bn ft3/day by 2030 from 15.8bn ft3/day in 2019 – to markets in western Canada and the US. Intra-basin demand – largely for gas-fired generation and oil sands development – is expected to increase to 6.7bn ft3/day by 2030 from current levels around 5.1bn ft3/day, NGTL said.
Underpinning the expansion are incremental firm service-delivery contracts amounting to 1.1mn GJ/day, consisting of 985,000 GJ/day at NGTL’s East Gate, which provides access to markets in Saskatchewan, eastern Canada and the US Northeast and Midwest, and 106,900 GJ/day of intra-basin firm service.
NGTL expects to have the new facilities in service by the second quarter of 2021.