‘Several proponents’ mulling investment in pipeline: Alberta energy minister

Alberta's energy minister says nothing is set in stone, but there are multiple people stepping forward to fund a new west coast pipeline.

Alberta’s energy minister says “several proponents”—including a Fortune 500 company—have stepped forward to pay for a new west coast pipeline.

Brian Jean told reporters Wednesday a number of potential investors have asked to “be participants within the pipeline, asked to be investors in the pipeline and want to have off-take on the pipeline.”

Despite the interest, he wouldn’t say if any of the interested, unnamed parties will be attaching their names to the pipeline application that’s due July 1.

“We’re not putting anything in stone at this stage, but we do, and have had, several proponents come forward,” Jean said. “We’ve had one particular discussion with a Fortune 500 company, in very general terms, about financing the entire project and building the entire project.

“We’re in very infant stages, but we want to make sure Canadians have the opportunity first.”

As of now, it’s unclear what an American investor would mean for Indigenous ownership or partnership.

Jean’s comments come a day after the leader of one of Canada’s biggest oil companies called the pipeline “unfinanceable.”

Cenovus CEO Jon McKenzie blasted government policy in a speech to Calgary’s Global Energy Show, saying, “Over the past decade, (Canada has) continued to add incremental regulatory burdens at cost to the industry.”

In exchange for the pipeline MOU with Ottawa, new carbon tax pricing and a massive carbon capture project are on the way.

The latter was pushed by industry for years.

But now, McKenzie claims even the lowered emissions-reduction standards will handicap large producers.

One MacDonald-Laurier Institute expert says emitters like Cenovus aren’t willing to invest in climate targets and a pipeline.

“Part of what they’re advocating now is we can’t afford to pay the carbon price on all our production and also for this $30-billion project,” Heather Exner-Pirot said. “Can you pick one or the other?

“And there’s quite a lot of pipeline to move into that will get filled up with what we call brownfield, or existing investments. If you want to do that whole other million-barrel pipeline, we need to start investing in greenfield. No one has done that in the oilsands since 2013.”

As for how the conversation will shake out over the next three weeks, Jean was still confident his government’s application will be complete.

“You’re going to have to wait and see, but all indicators are at this stage that we’ll be meeting that deadline,” he said.