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'We are going to need two or three Enbridge-Keystones': Liepert

Alberta's oil sands are expanding so fast that such pipeline proposals as Enbridge's Northern Gateway and TransCanada's Keystone XL are just the beginning, says Alberta finance minister Ron Liepert.

“Keystone is only one of them, Enbridge is only one of them, but the reality is by 2020 we are going to need two or three Enbridge-Keystones,” Liepert recently told Bloomberg-Businessweek.

Oil sands production is expected to reach three million barrels per day over the next eight years, about double the current output, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

That will mean gigantic dollar signs for the government of Alberta, which anticipates bitumen royalties close to $10 billion in 2014-15.

Yet even getting the current pipeline proposals approved has been much more difficult than the proponents first imagined.

Northern Gateway, which just began public hearings last month, is the subject of a multi-front environmental war.

Keystone XL grew from little-known pipeline proposal to a symbolic battle over energy security, climate change, environmental stewardship and even the leadership credentials of President Barack Obama.

Though Obama delayed, and then outright denied TransCanada's proposal, company officials expect the pipeline to be up and running by early 2015.

Geoff Dembicki reports on energy and climate change issues for The Tyee.

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