In an October 4 letter titled Salish Sea Vessel Traffic to Increase, the author incorrectly infers the volume of vessel traffic related to the proposed Trans Mountain Expansion Project.

The proposed Expansion Project will increase the amount of product transported on the pipeline from 300,000 barrels per day (bbl) to 890,000 bbl, however oil tanker traffic will not increase based on the total expanded volume. Though the capacity of the pipeline is proposed to increase and there will be an increase in tanker traffic, not all product shipped on the Trans Mountain Pipeline system, current or proposed, is destined for the dock.

Today, most of the product that goes through our pipeline supplies land markets in Canada and the United States, which will continue to be served and grow in the future.

In terms of tanker traffic, it is important to put traffic related to Trans Mountain’s facility into context.  About 6,000 large vessels per year transit the region, 600 of these are tankers, of which 60 are currently from our facility.  With the expansion, this would increase by 348 tankers per year. Put simply, about one per cent of total large vessel traffic in the Salish Sea today is attributable to Trans Mountain and with expansion, it would be six per cent.

We encourage anyone who has questions about the Trans Mountain Expansion Project to contact us, or learn more on our website: Transmountain.com

Michael Davis

Senior Director of Marine Development, Kinder Morgan