Enbridge CEO Greg Ebel said on an earnings call that the company would require 'real change on numerous fronts' to seriously consider reinvesting in any new major pipelines.Dado Ruvic/Reuters
Ottawa would have to enact a number of legal, policy and regulatory changes before Enbridge Inc. ENB-T even considered backing any new pipeline projects, says the company’s chief executive officer, as Canada mulls building new infrastructure as a strategy in the expanding trade war with the United States.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs on energy imports from Canada has revived calls for pipelines that can transport crude to markets other than the country’s southern neighbour. Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, for example, has said the country should have “a conversation” about a pipeline that stretches across Canada.
That has rankled many in the oil and gas sector, who for years championed two such pipelines: Energy East, which would have carried 1.1 million barrels of crude oil per day from Alberta and Saskatchewan to refineries in Eastern Canada; and Northern Gateway, which would have shipped oil from Alberta to the West Coast.
Both were scuppered after years of regulatory hurdles and environmental opposition.
Greg Ebel, the CEO of Enbridge – which proposed the Northern Gateway project – said Friday on an earnings call that the company would require “real change on numerous fronts” to seriously consider reinvesting in any new major pipelines.
Even with permits, regulatory approvals, Indigenous participation and strong customer support, the pipeline project was “cut short by the federal government,” he said, which cost the company and its investors hundreds of millions of dollars.
“We would need to see real legislative change at the federal and provincial government level that specifically identifies major infrastructure projects like Northern Gateway as being in the national interest – and therefore legally required,” he said.
Mr. Ebel would also like to see more flexible permitting, as well as increased Indigenous consultation and direct participation via an expanded loan guarantee program, which he said is currently “way too small for meaningful projects.”
Policies that resemble Alberta’s recent move to commit volumes of crude onto expanded pipeline systems would also be helpful, he said.
Green-lighting any pipeline investment would require policies that do more to support oil and gas production, such as nixing the oil and gas emission cap and the carbon tax, Mr. Ebel said.
“I’m really pleased to see Canadian policy makers focusing on the issue and realizing the true benefits of diverse markets. We’ve pitched that for a long time,” he said.
“There’s lots of talk from governments and policy makers, which is great. They’re saying the right things, but it’s going to take real action on laws and regulation to attract the capital.”
Enbridge saw record volumes on some of its pipelines in 2024, Mr. Ebel said Friday, and its U.S. transmission system recorded two of its highest-ever delivery days in January.
Its Mainline system averaged 3.1 million barrels per day, even after the expanded Trans Mountain pipeline that carries oil from Alberta to the West Coast came into service. (Mainline runs east from Alberta across the Prairies, crossing the border near Gretna, Man., where it joins with the U.S. section of the line.)
Regardless of the outcome of the current Canada-U.S. trade spat, “Canadian oil will continue to flow south,” Mr. Ebel said.
“We’ve got tariff concerns out there, but there’s such a hard wiring of the energy system in North America, we just don’t see that as a material impact.”
His comments came as Enbridge reported a profit attributable to common shareholders of $493-million in its fourth quarter, down from $1.73-billion in the same period a year earlier.
The pipeline company said the profit amounted to 23 cents per share for the quarter ended Dec. 31, down from 81 cents per share in the last three months of 2023.
On an adjusted basis, Enbridge said it earned 75 cents per share in the quarter, up from an adjusted 64 cents per share a year earlier and in line with analysts’ expectations.
With a report from The Canadian Press