EAGLE SPIRIT SUSTAINABLE MULTI-PIPELINE, MULTI-ENERGY CORRIDOR TO TIDE-WATER
Mike Priaro, P.Eng.
First uploaded November 27, 2017
This is what a sustainable multi-pipeline, multi-energy corridor to tide-water looks like and what it could achieve.
There are several impediments to realizing the dream of an environmentally-sustainable oil pipeline to tide-water in order to access new markets and world prices.
One is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Bill C-48, The Oil Tanker Moratorium Act, which would ban loading large oil tankers on B.C.'s north coast – but not anywhere else.
Bill C-48 needs an amendment to allow large tankers out of the Prince Rupert area or for the Senate to send it back with such.
Other impediments include current proposals such as Keystone XL, which does not access new markets and fails on many of the accounts detailed below, and the Trans Mountain expansion which also falls short in many environmental, ecological, and market areas, faces consolidated action in the Federal Court of Appeal, and is opposed by five First Nations, the cities of Vancouver, Burnaby, Victoria, and others, half the people of B.C., and the government of B.C.
Finally, the vision, courage, leadership, and energy of Canadians may also be impediments insofar as those qualities fall short in the recognition and pursuit of a truly sustainable, nation-building effort to access tide-water for Canada’s natural resources.
This is what a sustainable multi-pipeline, multi-energy corridor from the oil sands and Alberta's Industrial Heartland region to tide-water near Prince Rupert, B.C. looks like –and what it could achieve that no other pipeline proposal can:
1. Accesses new markets from the closest, safest oil port in Canada, Port Simpson just north of prince Rupert, to southeast Asian markets using the northern Pacific Great Circle shipping route;
2. Maximizes industry return by accessing world prices and by minimizing pipelining and marine shipping costs;
3. Potentially provides more pipeline capacity than the Keystone XL, Trans Mountain, Enbridge Line 3, and northern gateway proposals put together;
4. Minimizes marine oil spill risk by using the safest area for marine terminals on all of Canada's west coast;
5. Minimizes the number of tanker trips by loading two-million-barrel capacity Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs);
6. Eliminates the crude discount suffered by the proposed Trans Mountain expansion which is limited to using smaller tankers with only one-quarter the capacity of a VLCC.
7. Potentially saves $10 billion or more in industry costs by constructing and operating multiple pipelines at the same time in a single right-of-way;
8. Runs through the heart of TransCanada’s extensive NOVA gas gathering system and through the Enbridge/Spectra gas gathering system in northwest Alberta and northeast B.C.;
8. Helps develop massive new shale gas, gas liquids, and light oil resources in northwest Alberta and northeast B.C.
9. As liquified natural gas (LNG) those shale gas resources will sustainably displace high greenhouse gas (GHG)-emitting and highly-polluting coal-burning in Asia;
10. Minimizes ecological compartmentalization and wildlife disruption by using only a single right-of-way and by combining pump, compressor and transformer/tower stations wherever possible;
11. Provides for natural gas, natural gas liquid condensates (NGL), and liquified petroleum gas (LPG) pipelines in the same corridor as the crude oil pipeline;
12. Encourages low-carbon hydropower development in the Peace Region. In Alberta alone, 40,000 megawatts of low-carbon hydropower potential is contained in the Athabasca, Peace and Slave River basins;
13. Minimizes environmental footprint by providing sustainable, low-carbon hydropower for coastal LNG plants and for pipeline pump and compressor stations;
14. Provides an opportunity to reduce the burning of 3.1 billion cu.ft/day of natural gas in the oil sands using Peace Region, Athabasca and Mackenzie hydro-power to reduce the GHG emissions from the oil sands;
15. Provides low-carbon hydropower for northern B.C. and Alberta residential, commercial, industrial, and resource development uses;
16. Places responsibility for ecological stewardship and security, and for some of the operations, of the pipeline corridor and port operations into the hands of First Nations;
17. Provides desperately needed economic and attendant social benefits for First Nations which should also wisely be allowed an equity stake in the pipelines;
18. Provides well-paying jobs for many Canadians including First Nations;
19. Provides opportunity to batch value-added products down the oil pipeline or down a separate refined products pipeline;
20. Provides access to forestry, recreation, mining, and isolated northern communities from corridor roads;
21. Provides access to the power grid for green power such as run-of-river hydro and wind power;
22. Provides for additional services such as water lines and fibre-optic cables;
23. Creates the first high-capacity link between the B.C. and Alberta power grids with low-carbon hydropower using new high-capacity high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) power lines from the Peace Region to the west coast and to the oil sands;
24. Creates a world scale hydrocarbon and hydropower price-setting and distribution hub in northwest Alberta/northeast B.C. with access to both North American and Asian markets;
25. Encourages development of Yukon, Northwest Territories, Mackenzie Delta, Beaufort Sea, and Arctic Island archipelago oil and gas, and of Mackenzie River hydropower, by allowing an efficient future tie-in of pipelines and transmission lines from a Mackenzie Valley corridor;
26. Establishes the northwest leg of an eventual cross-Canada coast-to-coast-to-coast energy/utility corridor.
Such a sustainable, multi-pipeline, multi-energy corridor to tide-water can only be realized by Eagle Spirit Energy’s proposed Eagle Spirit pipeline corridor. It already has industry, market, and First Nations support but does not yet have widespread awareness, acknowledgement, or support on the part of politicians, the business community, and the public.
Every Canadian needs to get behind this truly sustainable, nation-building effort.
Mike Priaro, P.Eng.
Calgary
403-281-2156
Author Bio
Mike Priaro, B.Eng.Sc. (Chem. Eng.), U.W.O. '76, P.Eng., Lifetime Member Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA), worked in facilities, production, operations and reservoir engineering, as engineering consultant, area superintendent, and engineering management in Alberta's oil patch for 25 years for companies such as Amoco and PetroCanada.
He increased oil production from the historic Turner Valley oilfield and brought in under-balanced drilling and completion technology to drill out, complete, and test several of the highest producing gas wells ever on mainland Canada at Ladyfern.
He co-authored ‘Advanced Fracturing Fluids Improve Well Economics’ in Schlumberger's Oilfield Review and developed the course material for the ‘Advanced Production Engineering’ course at Southern Alberta Institute of Technology.
Mike has presented his work to Canada’s House Committee on Natural Resources in Ottawa and to the Senate Committee on Transportation and Communications in Calgary.
He has had work published in: JNW Energy, Feb. 27, 2017; Alberta Oil magazine, Oct. 20, 2016; World Pipelines magazine, Sept. 2016; the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in the Mar. and Apr., 2014 and Feb., 2015 editions of Inside Policy magazine; energy industry websites such as RBN Energy and OilPrice.com; Oil and Gas Journal, Jul. 17, 2014; Petroleum Technology Quarterly, Q3 2014; and in columns in the Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, Halifax Chronicle Herald, and others.
Mike has no formal connection to any oil company, environmental organization, think tank, labour organization, lobbying or special interest group, academia, or to provincial or federal politics.
In 2015 Mike provided "A Preliminary Engineering, Economic, and Environmental Evaluation of ASRL's Partial Upgrading Process" to Alberta Sulphur Research Limited and presented it to 80 representatives of ASRL's member companies. ASRL partial upgrading subsequently obtained Alberta government funding and industry support. On Jan. 29, 2016, the Alberta Government made partial upgrading a priority based on its Royalty Review Panel’s recommendations. ASRL’s partial upgrading flow test pilot ran at CANMET/NRCan’s research facility in Devon, AB during 2016.
I
n 2016 Mike was invited to be a Bowman Centre Volunteer Associate at the not-for-profit Bowman Centre for Sustainable Energy. Its mission is 'to catalyze big energy projects which drive Canada’s energy strategy and generate sustainable wealth and jobs'.
Mike’s work can also be found on his LinkedIn pages: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-priaro or Behance website: https://www.behance.net/Mike_Priaro
