Home to the world’s second largest oil reserves, the province of Alberta is experiencing an unprecedented expansion of energy production and oil sands infrastructure development. Located in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in northern Alberta, the oil sands are a huge world-scale resource, consisting of 1.7 to 2.5 trillion barrels of heavy petroleum. With production forecast to increase by as much as 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2015, new pipeline infrastructure is required to transport the heavy crude to key refinery markets in the U.S. Midwest, Great Lakes region and beyond.
Enbridge is proposing a number of pipeline expansion projects to support the growth and development of the Canadian oil sands and promote a North American solution to energy reliability and security of crude petroleum supply. The expansion projects in Alberta include:
Southern Lights, a liquid petroleum pipeline from Chicago through Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta to bring light hydrocarbons, or “diluents,” to Edmonton for distribution to the oil sands area of northern Alberta. Alberta Clipper, a new crude oil pipeline from Hardisty, Alberta to Superior, Wis., to increase capacity of the Enbridge system by 450,000 bpd and later be expandable up to 800,000 bpd.
Throughout construction and operation, these projects will bring economic benefits to Alberta through the form of job opportunities and increased tax revenue that will support schools, infrastructure development and other provincial operations. 