{"id":706939,"date":"2026-06-01T02:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T02:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/706939\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T02:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T02:36:08","slug":"trans-mountain-pipeline-will-run-at-full-capacity-in-june-ceo-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/706939\/","title":{"rendered":"Trans Mountain pipeline will run at full capacity in June, CEO says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The Trans Mountain Westridge Marine Terminal, where crude oil from the expanded Trans Mountain Pipeline is loaded onto tankers, in Burnaby, B.C., in 2024.DARRYL DYCK\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The Trans Mountain pipeline system will be running at capacity in June, as the Crown corporation works to boost volume on the federally owned line amid conversations about an entirely new oil conduit from Alberta to the West Coast.<\/p>\n

Chief executive officer Mark Maki attributed this month\u2019s high flow to a combination of factors, including production growth in Alberta, other pipelines out of the province being largely full, and the continuing global energy crisis exacerbated by the war in Iran. <\/p>\n

The federal government\u2019s goal is to eventually sell the pipeline, but that\u2019s not in the cards any time soon. <\/p>\n

First, Trans Mountain Corp. is planning a series of optimization projects to boost the system\u2019s capacity by roughly 34 per cent, or 300,000 barrels a day. <\/p>\n

After all, Mr. Maki said in an interview, \u201cwhen\u2019s the best time to sell a restaurant? When it\u2019s full.\u201d <\/p>\n

British Columbia\u2019s government is backing the optimization proposal<\/a> \u2013 a sharp reversal from its fierce opposition to the initial Trans Mountain expansion, when it argued that increased shipping traffic would endanger B.C.\u2019s marine environment. <\/p>\n

With such a huge bump in volume set to be added to the pipeline system, now simply \u201cisn\u2019t the right time\u201d to try to sell it, Mr. Maki said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you try to sell it today, someone\u2019s going to go, \u2018Well, I don\u2019t believe you.\u2019 And so they\u2019re going to start discounting that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ottawa-Alberta pipeline deal includes cancellation fee critics say is too low<\/a><\/p>\n

Adrian Dix, the B.C. Energy Minister, has urged Crown-owned utility BC Hydro to engage in talks with the pipeline company to support the optimization project. The province has also given the green light to the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority to dredge the Second Narrows waterway to allow tankers to load more oil at the Trans Mountain marine terminal in Burnaby.<\/p>\n

But the B.C. government does not support a new pipeline to the province\u2019s northwest coast, which is being championed by Alberta. <\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith signed a memorandum of understanding<\/a> in November, with the goals of unlocking Alberta\u2019s energy sector and diversifying export markets in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s trade war. The agreement laid out the conditions for construction of a new oil conduit to the Pacific.<\/p>\n

The federal government is eyeing a new oil pipeline route in southern British Columbia<\/a>, and Mr. Maki acknowledged it \u201cprobably has more merit\u201d given some northern First Nations\u2019 deeply held opposition to such a project. <\/p>\n

Trans Mountain recently met with representatives from some of those communities, Mr. Maki said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be hard, I think, to get them to a point where they\u2019re comfortable with the risk, no matter how much you can take it out of the equation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one wants to have a spill, a leak or anything else, but there\u2019s a chance it can happen, and they don\u2019t even want to deal with the chance. They make that absolutely crystal clear when they\u2019re talking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indigenous-led group sets sights on new pipeline if Ottawa keeps Trans Mountain<\/a><\/p>\n

Not everyone in the oil sector is convinced a pipeline will be built. But Mr. Maki is optimistic, saying it\u2019s too critical to the country to let it fall by the wayside. <\/p>\n

Plus, he said, the global demand for oil isn\u2019t going anywhere \u2013 though it won\u2019t necessarily be used for combustion.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have got to get their heads out of the \u2018it\u2019s going to be burned\u2019 idea, because that\u2019s not what\u2019s happening a lot of places,\u201d Mr. Maki said.<\/p>\n

He pointed to the Rongsheng refinery in Ningbo, China. It refines crude and sends it directly to the connected petrochemicals plant, then the end product is converted into plastics. <\/p>\n

China is one of the largest export markets for oil from Canada\u2019s West Coast.<\/p>\n

It wants even more product \u2013 particularly with the Iran war removing millions of barrels of oil from the world market \u2013 and Canada is well positioned to send it there, Mr. Maki said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a really important advantage. This country has access to the Pacific, and then access to all kinds of markets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: An earlier version of this article stated that Trans Mountain Corp. plans to boost the pipeline system\u2019s capacity by roughly 40 per cent, or 360,000 barrels a day, which was the company’s original plan. It has since changed its plans to call for a 34-per-cent increase, or 300,000 barrels a day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: The Trans Mountain Westridge Marine Terminal, where crude oil from the expanded Trans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48,1008],"class_list":["post-706939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-pleasemod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}