Canada's Trans Mountain seeks last-minute route deviation on OTTAWA, Aug 23 (Reuters) - The Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) project has asked Canadian regulators for a route deviation on a 1.3-kilometre (0.8 mile)section of pipeline in British Columbia, months before the 600,000 barrel per day project is due to start shipping crude.
The application to the Canada Energy Regulator came to light as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday said he was confident the project was a solid investment and that interest was high among Indigenous groups who wanted to buy a share of the pipeline.
The Canadian government bought the pipeline for C$4.5 billion ($3.3 billion) in 2018 to make sure the project was completed after it ran into challenges, including opposition from Indigenous peoples and environmentalists, but costs have ballooned to C$30.9 billion.
TMX is expected to start operating in the first quarter of 2024.
The regulator is weighing whether to allow Trans Mountain Corp (TMC), the government-owned corporation building the project, to deviate from its previously approved route on a section of the pipeline just south of Kamloops in southern interior British Columbia.
The proposal has encountered opposition from the local First Nation, whose traditional territory the pipeline crosses, according to TMC's application to the regulator, dated Aug. 10.
In the application TMC said it had encountered "significant technical challenges" micro-tunnelling through hard rock formations and requested to instead adjust the pipeline route and use a conventional open trench.