Federal Natural Resource Minister Amarjeet Sohi said on Wednesday that construction on the Trans Mountain project had faced a delay, but he did not provide an update on when the expansion of the oil pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia's coast would be complete.
The Canadian government agreed in May to buy the pipeline from Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd (TSX: KML) for $4.5 billion, in an effort to ensure its expansion went ahead. It is currently scheduled to be in service by December 2020.
Sohi acknowledged to reporters outside a Cabinet meeting in Nanaimo, B.C. that there was a delay of a couple of months, but that the project was moving forward, and would "continue to move forward until it's done."
Kinder Morgan halted all non-essential work on the project in April, delaying the build for several months. Some preliminary work has since resumed, but actual pipeline construction is not expected to start until the spring of 2019.
It remains unclear if the expansion will be delivered on its current timeline and budget.
The Trudeau government has faced criticism for taking on the massive $7.4-billion twinning project, which will nearly triple capacity on the existing pipeline to 890,000 barrels per day.
That new capacity is desperately needed by Canadian oil producers, who face transportation bottlenecks that have translated into deep discounts on their product relative to the U.S. benchmark.
