It has now been a full year since the Carney government began considering the construction of an oil export pipeline from Alberta to the British Columbia coast. Prime Minister Mark Carney stated on May 13, 2025, that he would support building a pipeline, emphasizing that he had expressed such thoughts repeatedly. Despite retaining extraordinary powers to approve the project at any time, Carney announced only that he intends to approve construction by September 2027. According to a subsequent report by CIBC World Markets, the best-case scenario suggests the pipeline might begin moving oil by 2034.
This West Coast pipeline has been under consideration for more than 20 years. Enbridge first signed contracts for the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline in 2006, only for the project to be canceled by then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2016. If everything proceeds as planned, Canada could begin operations on a West Coast oil export pipeline more than 28 years after it was first proposed.
Such a glacial pace is unknown among other major oil producers. While Canada is not alone in facing cancelled oil infrastructure or regulatory hurdles, its inability to move oil across internal borders is unmatched in most jurisdictions worldwide. Below is a quick summary of how quickly oil pipelines are built outside Canada.
The Strait of Hormuz Bypass Pipeline
The United Arab Emirates has recently demonstrated how to fast-track an oil export pipeline. In March, the UAE's oil exports were disrupted by intermittent Iranian blockades of the Strait of Hormuz, the only waterway connecting UAE oil ports to the Indian Ocean. This month, Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. announced that it is already halfway through constructing a new pipeline to bypass the blockaded strait, with oil expected to start flowing in 2027.
The UAE's ability to expedite this pipeline largely stems from following an existing right-of-way. The project expands the existing Habshan-Fujairah pipeline, which first opened in 2012. This situation mirrors Canada's Trans Mountain Expansion Project, the only non-U.S. export pipeline built in the last 50 years. That project, completed in 2024, followed the route of the 1950s-era Trans Mountain Pipeline. Even then, it took 11 years from application to completion, and it would not have been finished without the federal government buying out the project in 2018.
