It appears that Kinder Morgan is optimistic that the pipeline will go through.
Even as Kinder Morgan announced it had suspended all non-essential spending on the $7.4-billion Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion, pipe for the project was delivered to a staging area last week in New Westminster, B.C., according to the Vancouver Sun.
Kinder Morgan’s suspension announcement a week ago Sunday was part of an ultimatum in which the Houston, Texas-based company said it needed certainty by May 31 that the project can be built or it will walk away.
The environmental group Wilderness Committee snapped photos of the pipe delivery last Thursday, just four days after the ultimatum, according to the Vancouver Sun. They show two transport trucks delivering loads of pipe to the staging site next to the Fraser River east of Brunette Avenue in New Westminster. Another photo shows pipe stacked along a fence at the site.
Work also continued last week on Burnaby Mountain, where land was being cleared for additional oil storage tanks at an existing Kinder Morgan site.
In a written response to the Vancouver Sun, Kinder Morgan spokeswoman Ali Hounsell stated Monday that with a project of this scope and size, there is a long lead time required for the procurement of materials and contracting of work. “As such, materials that were ordered and were in transit before last week’s announcement are arriving at work sites, and some essential work that has already started may be continuing,” wrote Hounsell.
(Vancouver Sun)
