September 27, 2013 [Burnaby Now] - Twice as much oil in the tanks on the hill and three times as many tankers at the dock. That’s part of the picture Burnaby residents are being shown by Kinder Morgan as they push to get the Trans Mountain Expansion Project approved.
The company unveiled more details of its plans for the two Burnaby terminals at an open house Wednesday at the Executive Inn in Coquitlam.
The scheme would see the number of tanks at the Burnaby storage terminal double, with 14 new storage tanks installed. That would add another 3.9 million barrels of oil to the facility’s capacity. Currently, the terminal can hold 1.6 million barrels.
Residents will get a sneak peak of what the additional tanks will do to the view of Burnaby Mountain from a number of different vantage points, thanks to several artists’ renderings.
They’ll also see colour graphics of how three tankers at the new docking facility at the Westbridge Marine Terminal. Kinder Morgan also hopes to add a new, high-tech vapour recovery and re-injection system to help control emissions.
Lisa Clement of Trans Mountain Pipeline media relations said the company expected about 100 or so residents to come out to the open house to learn more about the project.
But at least one Burnaby neighborhood group had no plans to take part in the event. Alan Dutton of BROKE (Burnaby Residents Opposing Kinder Morgan Expansion) says the information session is actually a way of limiting discussion.
The pipeline expansion project is in its early stages, according to a timeline released by Kinder Morgan as part of the open house presentation.
The company is planning for a lengthy regulatory approval period of two years, ending sometime in 2015. If approved, construction would commence in 2016 and take approximately two years.
Meanwhile, Kinder Morgan’s stock value remained largely unchanged in the wake of a follow-up report by energy analyst Kevin Kaiser of Hedgeye Risk Management.
Kaiser issued a critical report several weeks ago, alleging Kinder Morgan trimmed maintenance expenses to boost cash payments to shareholders. Stocks sank as much as eight per cent after that report.
In his followup report on Thursday, Kaiser reiterated his position that Kinder Morgan is “defending the indefensible” and its maintenance practices are still questionable.
The company’s maintenance capital spending policies create “an enormous wealth transfer… that should not be taking place.”
