Regina – TC Energy, formerly TransCanada, has projects in the works – tens of billions of dollars worth. And therein lies opportunity for companies looking for work with one of Canada’s largest pipeline companies.
B.J. Arnold, manager, public affairs – central Canada, spoke to the SIMSA Oil and Gas Supply Chain Forum in Regina on Oct. 3.
He explained TC Energy has three main business units. Oil and liquids, natural gas, power and storage. The liquids system includes the first Keystone pipeline.
“We do have $32 billion of projects that are unpinned, that we’re currently working on, moving forward. So, when you hear there’s absolutely nothing happening in the world of pipelines, that we’re not getting anything built, that’s not necessarily true. But there are some challenges that we have. An additional $20 billion of that is under development, like Keystone XL and Bruce Power,” he said.
The company changed its name from TransCanada on May 3, something he gets a lot of questions about. “We truly are North American,” he said.
“Are you guys embarrassed about being from Canada, originating from Canada?” he said is a common question. “I’ll tell you right now, I wouldn’t be up here, talking right now, if I worked for a company embarrassed to be from Canada. That’s definitely not the case. I’m a proud Canadian.
“TC obviously still does stand for TransCanada. We put the ‘Energy’ because we are more than just pipelines now. With the recent purchase in 2016 of Columbia Gas, as well as assets down in the U.S., 52 per cent of our business is in the U.S. now. Forty per cent of our operations are in Canada, and we do have eight per cent of our operations currently in Mexico, strictly gas pipelines there.”
He said the energy mix, globally, is expected to remain unchanged until 2040. “As much as some of the individuals, environmental groups, the opponents to a lot of this stuff think we can stop fossil fuels tomorrow, as we can see here, and I’m pretty sure this is based in science and fact, over the next 20 years, oil is still the Number 1 form of energy across the globe.”
While hydro and other renewables have increased, it’s not going to happen tomorrow, he noted.
He pointed out that Canada’s oil sands produce approximately 0.15 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions as of 2016.
He spoke of TC Energy’s Coastal Gaslink project, which would allow northeast British Columbia-produced natural gas to Kitimat. While there is some concern about emissions related to it, he said, “When we’re talking about this topic, we have to think globally. We’re doing our part in Canada. But if we’re not going to produce it, someone else is going to do it. Someone else who doesn’t have the same environmental record or human rights policies in place. We have to think about that at the end of the day. Our industry has to do a better job, telling that story. If it’s not here, it’s going to be somewhere else, and it’s going to be more carbon intensive,” Arnold said.
He pointed out that in 2014, there was approximately $81 billion invested in Canada’s oil and gas industry, but by 2018, that number had fallen to $41 billion, a 49 per cent decrease.
He spoke of Bill C-69 and C-48 and the numbing effect that has had. “We’re doing all that we can,” Arnold said, in that environment.
“Seeing foreign investment leave, seeing companies like Petronas basically leave $6 billion on the table, that’s tough. Every single one of us here has been affected by this,” he said.
But the United States has seen a 54 per cent increase in its pipeline construction, from 2017 to 2018. “They are building pipelines and energy infrastructure to get to international markets,” he said.
He referenced foreign money coming into Canada to fight against oil and gas development, and asked the crowd if they felt it was for strictly environmental reasons, or for business reasons.
“Climate change, we can all agree, is real. We need a more sustainable future. Right. But Vivian Krause, and now we’ve seen Premier Kenney in Alberta set up a task for to look into all this money coming into Canada to hurt our energy industry,” he said.
Keystone XL
On the long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline project, which would run from Hardisty, Alberta to Steele City, Nebraska, he said, “We finally have all of our major permits in Canada and the U.S. for the Keystone XL pipeline. The National Energy Board gave its approval in March 2010. The Presidential Permit was granted three days after President Trump got into office in January 2017. The Nebraska Public Service Commission gave us an approval of the mainline alternate route in November 2017.
“That one we got sued on left, right and centre. We are continuing getting sued on a lot of these as well, but that was the big one. But on Aug. 23 of this year, the Supreme Court of Nebraska came back to us and said, ‘You guys are good to go.’
He went on, “We still are monitoring a lot of regulatory issues. There are a few other lawsuits that’s happening down in the U.S. Right now, everything is fine in Canada. The U.S. is the challenge. With the U.S. presidential race coming up next year, there’s a lot of political questions. A lot of the Democratic presidential hopefuls are saying they’re going to veto the project, like President Obama did. Bernie Sanders said he is going to arrest every oil and gas executive on the planet, so I don’t know how feasible that’s going to be.
“We are now currently working the scope for 2020. All the stakeholders out there, we chatted a little bit. Stay tuned,” Arnold said.
“Some of you might have seen a bunch of pipe going back and forth from Regina to the Shaunavon area over the last year-and-a-half. When we got approval in 2010, we procured all the pipe. And that pipe has been sitting in pipe yards at Piapot, Shaunavon, Camrose, for ten years. As we are going through the process of looking through that pipe, Shawcor in Regina got a really big work order there, and has inspected pipe for the last year-and-a-half. We just completed that two weeks ago. So that pipe is coming back to Shaunavon and Piapot, and I really hope we don’t have to bring it back this way in five or ten years,” he said.
For companies interested in working with TC Energy, he pointed them to their vendor web portal, https://www.tcenergy.com/operations/vendors/ .
We need to do a better job telling the story
When B.J. Arnold was working in communications on the Energy East project, he recounted one encounter he had with an opponent to the energy industry.
He noted a lot of people understand the benefits of the industry, and the opponents aren’t going to change their mind.
“I recall several conversations that I had with several opponents who said, ‘What does the energy industry actually do? How does it benefit me? I don’t think it benefits anyone but your companies and makes the rich richer.’
“I looked at this young lady and said, ‘Do you go to school?’
“She said, ‘Yeah.’
“Do you ever have to use social programs or hospitals every once in a while?
“She said, ‘Yeah.’
“Do you travel on roads?
“She said, ‘Yeah.’
“Do you use laptops? iPhones? Any other technology?
“She said, ‘Yeah.’
“Then nothing comes to mind.
“She just didn’t understand everything I had just mentioned derives from the energy industry, whether it was from the product, or the benefits of these types of companies working and living in those communities,” he concluded.
