By Nia Williams
CALGARY, Alberta, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Canada's National
Energy Board said on Thursday it has delayed the release of its
recommendation report on Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) Inc's KMI.N Trans
Mountain pipeline expansion by five months to acquire additional
information on the project.
Kinder Morgan is seeking approval from regulators to nearly
triple the capacity of its existing 300,000 barrels per day
Trans Mountain line from Edmonton to Canada's Pacific Coast to
890,000 bpd.
The report will give the NEB's recommendations on whether
the pipeline expansion should go ahead, and is now expected to
be released by May 20, 2016. Previously, it was scheduled to be
released on Jan. 26, 2016.
"We have received the updated steps and process from the
NEB. We are currently reviewing the timeline and whether there
are any implications to our project," Kinder Morgan spokeswoman
Ali Hounsell said.
Kinder Morgan currently has construction scheduled to start
in the third quarter of 2016 and anticipates the pipeline will
be in service by the third quarter of 2018.
The NEB has 15 months from the date it determines a project
application is complete to issue a decision or recommendation,
but is allowed to exclude periods of time from that 15-month
limit, effectively pausing the review. After receiving a
recommendation from the NEB, the federal government would have
up to three months to make a final decision.
This is the second time regulators have imposed an exclusion
period on the Trans Mountain application.
It comes as a result of a decision by the hearing panel on
Aug. 21 to strike evidence in favour of the pipeline prepared by
consultant Steven Kelly, who was recently appointed to the NEB.
Regulators were concerned that including evidence from Kelly
would lead to questions about the impartiality of the review
process.
(Editing by James Dalgleish)