NEB delays Trans Mountain review process

Canada's National Energy Board (NEB) said last week that it had delayed the release of its recommendation report on Kinder Morgan Inc.'s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion by five months to acquire additional information on the project.

The NEB says it needs more information before proceeding.

The board says it is going to implement an “excluded period” for the review, beginning last week and lasting until 8 January 2016.

Its recommendations were to have been handed down on 26 January but the delay means a new deadline of 20 May next year.

The board did not specify what additional information it was seeking.

The proposed project would expand the existing Trans Mountain pipeline system between Edmonton and Burnaby, B.C., adding nearly 1000 km of new pipeline.

"We have received the updated steps and process from the NEB. We are currently reviewing the timeline and whether there are any implications to our project," Kinder Morgan spokeswoman Ali Hounsell said.

Kinder Morgan currently has construction scheduled to start in 3Q16 and anticipates the pipeline will be in service by 3Q18.

The NEB has 15 months from the date it determines a project application is complete to issue a decision or recommendation, but is allowed to exclude periods of time from that 15 month limit, effectively pausing the review.

Edited from various sources by Elizabeth Corner

Sources: Canadian Manufacturing, Reuters

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/project-news/28092015/neb-delays-trans-mountain-review-process/