China’s Sinochem Group has purchased one of the first crude cargoes shipped through a new pipeline in Canada, which is designed to move oil from landlocked Alberta to the Pacific Coast for export.
Sinochem bought a 550,000-barrel cargo from Suncor Energy Inc., which will load from the Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline in May-June, said traders who asked not to be identified. The oil is a heavy crude quality, they added.
The Trans Mountain Expansion is the country’s biggest new pipeline in over a decade and will nearly triple the capacity of the system, allowing Canadian companies to sell more crude to Asia and the U.S. West Coast. The oil purchased by Sinochem is of similar quality to Iraqi Basrah crude and will likely be refined in coker units, traders said.
Sinochem and Suncor didn’t immediately respond for comment.
The pipeline was initially slated to start in 2017 but faced repeated delays, cost overruns, construction mishaps and regulatory hurdles. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government bought Trans Mountain in 2018 from Kinder Morgan Inc. to save the project from cancellation.