The current Enbridge Gateway proposal includes two parallel 1,170 kilometre pipelines from the tar sands in northern Alberta out to Kitimat. One pipeline would carry between 400,000 to 1,000,000 barrels a day of crude oil from the Alberta tar sands to the BC coast, while the second pipeline would carry 193,000 barrels a day of condensate, a chemical and petroleum mixture used to dilute tar sands crude oil extracted so that it can travel by pipeline.
The project also includes the construction of a loading facility, including tank farms, near Kitimat. Tankers would begin to travel to British Columbia’s coast to transport oil and condensate. It is anticipated that approximately 225 condensate and crude oil-laden tankers a year3 would travel along the coast and 140 kilometres up a fjord to the Kitimat terminal.
Northern communities and First Nations first began to learn the details of the proposed Enbridge Gateway pipeline project in 2005. In late 2006, however, Enbridge requested that the regulatory review process for the project be delayed indefinitely. In June 2008 Enbridge wrote to federal regulators, indicated that it was resuming activity on the project and requested that the environmental assessment process be started again.