Enbridge Preps Pipeline Buildout for Trump-Driven Drilling Boom

(Bloomberg) -- Enbridge Inc. is devising plans to rapidly boost capacity on its US oil pipeline system if the incoming Trump administration succeeds in kicking off a drilling boom. 

The company sees an opportunity to move “several hundred thousand” more barrels of oil a day within the US in the next two to three years, largely through optimizing its existing system with techniques like looped sections and drag-reducing agents, Chief Executive Officer Greg Ebel said in an interview Friday.

Enbridge, which delivers about 5.8 million barrels of crude and liquids a day across North America, would focus on moving more oil out of the Rockies and the Bakken production regions to Midwest and Gulf Coast refineries, Ebel said. The comments about a potential US buildout come the same week the Calgary-based company announced an initiative to find ways to transport more Canadian crude from Alberta into the US.

Ebel said a North American pipeline buildout should appeal to an administration looking to project US power around the globe, even as analysts warn that Trump’s promise of tariffs on all goods from Canada threatens to hamper any expansion of the continent’s highly interconnected oil infrastructure.

“Every barrel that we move into the US or pick up through our systems in the Rockies and the Bakken also provides increased oil to export from the Gulf,” Ebel said. “Importantly, that can be exported to allies of the US and ensure energy power internationally.”

Ebel said he doesn’t know whether the tariffs will ultimately apply to Canadian oil and natural gas, but the company is planning for multiple scenarios and will continue to provide service whatever the government decides. 

Enbridge also sees the opportunity under a new US administration to complete work on the Line 5 oil pipeline, Ebel said, including a tunnel under the Great Lakes that has been held up by opposition from Michigan.

“That’s a really powerful opportunity that I would expect the administration would like to deal with, serving their aim of American energy superiority,” he said.

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