NEB delaying review of Kinder Morgan’s pipeline expansion project

CALGARY – The National Energy Board says it needs more information before proceeding with a review of Kinder Morgan Canada’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

The board says in a news release that it is going to implement an “excluded period” for the review, beginning last week and lasting until Jan. 8, 2016.

Its recommendations were to have been handed down on Jan. 26 but the delay means a new deadline of May 20 next year.

The board did not specify what additional information it was seeking.

The NEB notes it is the second excluded period for the Trans Mountain project — the first came from July 2014 to early February this year to allow the company to file additional studies related to a new preferred corridor through Burnaby Mountain.

In late August, Kinder Morgan said it would takeless than a month to replace evidence that was struck from the NEB review, saying it would file amendments by Friday to two reports that relied on the evidence.

The board struck from the record all evidence prepared by Steven Kelly, a consultant who will soon work for the regulator.

At the time, Kinder Morgan asked the board to expedite the conclusion of the review, saying it was not responsible for the delay and was only refiling evidence related to a “narrow” issue.

The proposed project would expand the existing Trans Mountain pipeline system between Edmonton and Burnaby, B.C., adding nearly 1,000 kilometres of new pipeline.