Canada awaits private sector move on Pacific crude pipeline, minister says

Canada's Natural Resources Minister, Tim Hodgson, said that Ottawa has not been presented yet with any private sector plan to build a new oil pipeline to the west coast.

Canada’s federal government has not been presented with any private sector proposal to build a new crude pipeline to the Pacific coast, the country’s Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson said on Friday.

Hodgson said in an interview in Calgary that the government is beginning to have “concrete discussions” with various proponents of projects that could get the go-ahead under new legislationpassed by Canada’s Senate in late June.

The legislation aims to fast-track approval for natural resource and infrastructure projects, part of a campaign promise by Prime Minister Mark Carney to transform Canada’s economy inthe face of U.S. tariffs.

Hodgson declined to provide specifics about the discussions under way, saying the government has done its part to give project proponents the clarity they need to invest. “Now it’s up to the private sector to make those decisions,” he said.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said in June the province is working to present the federal government with a proponent and route for a potential new crude pipeline from Alberta to thePort of Prince Rupert in British Columbia.

Smith said the pipeline would be built in tandem with the Pathways Alliance carbon capture and storage project.

Canada is trying to diversify oil exports to be less reliant on the United States, but has struggled to find private companies willing to build a pipeline.

Hodgson confirmed Friday that if there is to be a pipeline to tidewater, it must be built together with the Pathways project, which has been proposed by a consortium of oil sands companies to reduce emissions from Canada’s energy sector and which could cost between C$10 and C$20 billion to construct.