PetroChina Canada will no longer be a committed shipper on the Trans Mountain oil pipeline after assigning its contracts to another party, the company said in a letter filed with the Canada Energy Regulator, dated Oct. 10.
The recently expanded Trans Mountain pipeline has capacity to ship 890,000 barrels per day (b/d) of crude from Alberta’s oil sands to the Port of Vancouver in British Columbia. The company is a subsidiary of China’s top oil-producing firm PetroChina and holds six assets in western Canada, including the MacKay River and Dover oil sands projects and a stake in the LNG Canada liquefied natural gas project, due to start operating next year.
A spokesperson for PetroChina Canada did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why the company had given up its committed shipping agreements.
PetroChina Canada wrote to regulators to say it was withdrawing as an intervenor in a long-running dispute between Trans Mountain and its committed shippers over pipeline tolls.
“PCC has now assigned these agreements to another party and will not be a committed shipper going forward,” the letter said.
PetroChina did not name the other party.