Kinder Morgan has received the final environmental approval from British Columbia to proceed with its Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion. The project, which aims to ship heavy crude from oil sands in Alberta to Vancouver-area ports in British Columbia, was previously approved in November by Canadian Prime Minister Just Trudeau.
The new British Columbia certificate means Kinder Morgan has met 37 environmental conditions in exchange for support of the 715 miles of heavy oil pipelines. Kinder Morgan plans to start construction in September, 2017 and to have the twin pipeline system fully operational by late 2019. The Trans Mountain expansion would almost triple its existing capacity from 300,000 to 890,000 barrels of crude oil per day.