Province signs letter of intent to double energy production

Posted on February 6, 2025 by Sunny South News

By Cal Braid
Southern Alberta Newspapers
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

At a  press conference last month, Premier Danielle Smith was joined by Greg Ebel, CEO and president of Enbridge Inc, to announce that the Province had just signed a letter of intent with Enbridge to form a working group with the Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission (APMC). The working group will take action to accelerate and increase pipeline capacity in order to deliver more high-value energy to the U.S. market.

 Smith said, “(Our) ambition is to double oil and gas production, and today, we’ve signed a letter of intent with Enbridge to accelerate these growth opportunities and ensure more capacity for oil and gas is available across more than 29,000 kilometers of pipelines in the Enbridge network. This added capacity objective is critical to Alberta and our most important trading partner, the United States.”

 The U.S. imports 56 per cent of its oil from Alberta, and Enbridge has invested $20 billion over the past decade to increase oil transport from 1.5 to 3.2 million barrels daily. The goal is to leverage existing infrastructure to meet future needs without undertaking large-scale projects. Alberta will guarantee barrels to secure pipeline construction and avoid taxpayer funding.

 The accompanying media release said the working group will evaluate future egress, transport, storage, terminalling, and market access opportunities across the Enbridge network in order to move more Alberta oil and gas to Canadians and American partners.

 Alberta’s oil directly supports more than 50 U.S. based refineries with direct investment in more than 20 U.S. states. Smith said that doubling oil and gas production in Alberta has been a goal of her administration “since day one,” and increased production means increased investment, increased jobs, and increased royalties for Albertans.

 “Now the work begins to advance these in support of our shared ambition,” Smith said. “We are also in discussions with the other pipeline companies, and look forward to advancing ideas and opportunities that can continue to provide Albertans who own this resource with investment returns and proactive market access opportunities for Alberta’s oil and gas assets in the immediate future.”

 “Alberta cannot afford to be passive when it comes to providing our energy to North America and globally,” she said. “Alberta’s exports of 4.3 million barrels per day of heavy oil, which is almost equivalent to the amount of light oil that the U.S. exports globally today demonstrates the critical alignment of our North American oil market and highlights our long partnership in support of addressing energy security globally.”

CEO Greg Ebel said, “Enbridge plays a rather unique and key role in the continental energy value chain. We were the first to connect western Canadian oil supplies with key U.S. markets more than 75 years ago, and we’ve grown with North American energy needs, working collaboratively with our customers, with governments, with communities, and Indigenous groups to ensure safe, reliable, and first class energy solutions.”

 “We need all of the above approaches, (and) that includes oil and gas. As we like to say, you can’t run a full time economy on part time energy,” Ebel said, noting the rapidly growing demand for energy in North America driven by data centers, AI, and the resurgence of domestic manufacturing.

 He said Enbridge has demonstrated the effectiveness of its model by optimizing its pipelines and leveraging its existing footprint. It is able to deliver incremental capacity in a phased and cost effective manner in order to meet both present and future needs. Enbridge has the advantage of pre-existing pipes that are already in the ground and can take an approach that is less impactful on stakeholders, communities, and the environment overall.

 “Enbridge really has a multi-faceted super system that starts here in Alberta, stretches and serves demand markets and supply basins right across North America, making the entire continent stronger, more productive, and more prosperous,” Ebel said.