Canada’s Husky Energy has excess oil pipeline capacity to U.S. – CEO

CALGARY (Reuters) – Husky Energy Inc has excess oil pipeline capacity to the United States from Canada and has enough capacity locked in to ship crude until about 2021, Chief Executive Rob Peabody said on Tuesday.

The company has about 75,000 bpd committed on the existing Keystone pipeline and also has space on Enbridge Inc’s Mainline crude pipeline system, Peabody said on the sidelines of the TD Securities Calgary Energy Conference.

Western Canadian oil producers have struggled to move crude oil to refiners amid transport bottlenecks and new pipeline projects have faced delays and protests from environmental groups. Pipeline bottlenecks have also widened a price discount for Western Canadian heavy crude this year.

A Minnesota regulator late last month approved a certificate of need for Enbridge Inc to rebuild its Line 3 oil pipeline, angering environmentalists.

“We’re definitely seeing progress. The innate logic of replacing a pipeline that needs to be replaced is finally being seen by courts,” Peabody said, referring to Line 3.

On the Trans Mountain pipeline that will expand capacity from Alberta to the west coast in British Columbia, Peabody was optimistic the line will be built.

“Every time I see the prime minister, he assures me it’s going to be built, so I believe that it will happen,” he said.

Peabody also said the Keystone XL pipeline was “making good progress.”

The 1,899 km Keystone XL pipeline project has been a lightning rod of controversy for a decade, hotly contested by environmentalists but desperately needed by Canadian oil producers.

Husky Energy expects to grow production by about 5 percent each year over the next five years and beyond, Peabody said.