Pipeline impasse threatens Alberta's oil sands
The future of Alberta's oil sands hinges on two planned pipelines, but opposition is vocal and very influential
For all the wrong reasons, Enbridge is in the thick of two pipeline proposals – TransCanada's Keystone XL and its own Northern Gateway – that bear heavily on the scope and timing of oil-sands expansion. It is an unaccustomed role for a firm that has operated in a low-key fashion through most of its 60-year existence, while delivering billions of barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas to customers across North America and paying consistent dividends to its shareholders. Now, Canada's second-largest pipeline company figures large in the raging debate over plans to deliver oil-sands crude to the huge refining regions of the US Gulf coast and Asia (see Maps 1 and 2), which wou
Also in this section
16 April 2026
Demand for oil is falling because supply cannot meet it, not because it is no longer required
16 April 2026
The continent has an immediate opportunity to make the most of its energy resources by capturing gas that is currently slipping away
15 April 2026
The continent is seeing political pushback to climate plans, corporate reassessment of transition goals and rising supply risk in a fractured global order
15 April 2026
The Middle East energy crisis may turn out to be pivotal to the industry’s long-term expansion, but significant challenges still stand in its way
