Hardisty is a strategic embarkation point for oil exports both by rail and by pipeline. The small community of 673 people routinely is supplemented by a shadow population at times almost doubling the number of local residents.
Sandy Otto is the Chief Administrative Officer for the town of Hardisty, and she says the rejection of Keystone XL hasn’t changed what they do as much as it’s got her thinking about how they do it.
“I guess what we take a look at is, if we can’t ship it by pipe, then we try to look at other alternatives. We’ll ship by rail, or we’ll look at where the new pipelines can go. If we can start shipping off our east coast or west coast to different markets outside of the US then I think that’s going to help.”
Otto says until either the Energy East or Northern Gateway pipeline is built, they will continue to have to ship oil mostly by rail.
Since the US Government rejected Keystone XL, and construction on both Energy East and the Trans Mountain expansion isn’t expected to begin until the latter half of 2017, the town of Hardisty is looking to expand their rail loading facility.
“I think it’s important that our provincial government and our federal government take a strong look at trying to keep the backbone of our country economical and sustainable.”
The Hardisty Transload facility is owned by USD Developments, and wants to more than double their shipping capacity.
Currently the terminal can load up to two, 120 car trains a day with space to queue up three more. They hope to be able to load all five trains after the upgrade.
That’s a little more than 31 million litres in volume per day.
Otto says that they have a ten year contractual obligation to ship out the crude, regardless of price.