Northern Gateway Pipeline Eyes Mid-2014 Decision from Canadian Government

SUGAR LAND--January 3, 2013--Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--One year down, and 18 months to go; that's the timeline for the Canadian government to reach a decision on the proposed Northern Gateway crude-oil pipeline system, a 2,000-mile, $6.5 billion project being developed by Enbridge Incorporated (NYSE:ENB) (Calgary, Alberta, Canada). As proposed, the project consists of two pipelines: One would transport up to 525,000 barrels per day of crude oil westward from Alberta to a planned export terminal at Kitimat, British Columbia. The second pipeline would bring imported crude oil condensates eastward, from Kitimat to the Edmonton, Alberta, area. Canada has large deposits of heavy oil in Alberta. It wants to export some of that to oil-hungry Asian markets. Today, nearly all of the oil and natural gas that Canada exports goes to the U.S. Canadian Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver has been working to cultivate new markets for Canadian hydrocarbon exports.