The Trans Mountain fiasco

A recent decision by Canada’s energy regulator will see the pipeline’s expansion project avoid yet more additional costs, but it remains blighted by poor economics

Calgary-based Trans Mountain Corp. (TMC) received a rare bit of good news for its troubled Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) oil pipeline project when the Canada Energy Regulator (CER) ruled in its favour on a re-routing dispute with a British Columbia First Nation in late September. Had the CER not agreed to a minor modification to TMX’s pipeline route in Indigenous territory, it would have added C$86m ($63m) in construction costs to its already bloated budget and pushed the in-service date back yet another nine months, to December 2024. Each month the in-service date is delayed leads to “roughly $200m in lost revenues and roughly $190m in carrying charges”, TMC said in its filing to the regul