New interest for pipeline says Enbridge

A Calgary-based company looking to build an oil pipeline from the Alberta Oilsands to a Kitimat Terminal said it has broad southeast Asian support for the project.

At the same time, environmental groups opposing the passage of oil tankers in B.C. waters also have new supporters, with world reknowned wildlife artist Robert Bateman wading into the issue.

Speaking at a Whistler Institutional Investor Conference in late February, Patrick Daniel, president and CEO of Enbridge, said the company continues to focus on expanding its markets beyond the central United States and in the long term, this includes the Gateway project.

"Gateway has a lot of renewed interest recently," said Daniel.

"The difference (between then and now) is that when we started Gateway it was an Enbridge idea and initiative and we were doing all the spending."

"We put $80 to $100 million into developing the application. We got to the point where we said enough of this fun, we need to have customer support," said Daniel.

Calgary-based Enbridge announced 16 months ago it was delaying the mega-project because it had decided to give priority to increasing pipeline capacity inland to the U.S. and several months ago a senior executive of China National Petroleum Corp., the parent company of PetroChina, had said the company was tired of waiting for support for the project from Canada and was walking away.

Daniel said they set Gateway aside because they have so much other work underway and asked customers to step up and support the remaining funding to get a National Energy Board application approved

"We now do have that funding in place, a combination of suppliers and refiners that are prepared to support the development costs to get it going," he said. "We've offered up 50 per cent of the equity in the Gateway project for those customers who do support the development costs and we have had very good uptake on it."

The interest this time around is not from the Chinese.

"It ranges from Japan down to Singapore. It's a broad southeast Asian interest, not just Chinese interest," he said.

However, the company has said this will not advance its current timeline for the project, with operations expected between 2012 and 2014.

Less than a month after Daniel made his comments, environmental groups, through the Dogwood Initiative, have released a new video in which Canadian wildlife artist Robert Bateman takes a stand against any plans to have oil tankers moving along B.C.'s coast.

"Living on the coast of British Columbia couldn't be more perfect for me. What is most precious about this is the connection between the land and the water; that most sensitive tidal zone," says Bateman.

The video, called Not a Pretty Picture, shows Canada's pre-eminent wildlife painter putting art on the line to protect the B.C. coast.

Released just before the 19th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill on March 24, the video highlights the richness of B.C.'s coast. Bateman surprises people with a simple yet poignant act to save the coast.

During the two and a half minute video, Bateman talks about one of his favourite paintings, called Orca Procession, in which a pod of orcas makes its way past an island dotted with sea birds, it shows all the intertidal life.

While talking about the impact of an oil spill, he then begins to smear the art work with black paint, eventually wiping out the scene and his own signature at the bottom of work.

At the end of the film he encourages people to sign to Dogwood Initiative petition at Notankers.ca. The video is available for viewing on youtube.com.

"If we allow tanker traffic there is going to be an oil spill. One accident is too many," he said. "I think it is something we should all do to make sure doesn't happen."