Update: March 2024 Capacity Announcement for the Trans Mountain Pipeline System
Press Release
Total system nominations for the Trans Mountain Pipeline system are apportioned by 18 percent for March 2024. The pipeline will be running full at its maximum capacity.
What is pipeline ‘apportionment’ and why is it important?
The energy sector around the world works on a monthly cycle. The Trans Mountain Pipeline is part of that cycle. Apportionment describes the amount of demand shippers place on the pipeline in excess of its available capacity. Here’s a step-by-step guide to the apportionment determination that’s carried out every month for the existing Trans Mountain Pipeline system.
- Each month our shippers submit requests for how much petroleum (crude oil and refined products) they want to ship through the pipeline to service their customers. These requests are called ‘nominations’.
- Based on shippers’ nominations, we then determine the ‘capacity’ available on the pipeline for the month. Determining pipeline capacity is complex. Capacity is affected by, among other things, the types of products that have been nominated, any pipeline system maintenance activities that will reduce flows that month and carry-over volumes that haven’t completed their transit of the pipeline by month’s end.
- Based on available pipeline capacity and the volume of shipper nominations we received, we calculate apportionment using a method accepted by the Canada Energy Regulator and forming part of our tariff. A tariff includes the terms and conditions under which the service of a pipeline is offered or provided, including the tolls, the rules and regulations, and the practices relating to specific services.
- If shipper nominations are less than pipeline capacity, the apportionment percentage to that destination is “zero” and all the product volumes nominated by shippers are accepted to be transported that month.
- If shipper nominations exceed pipeline capacity, the apportionment is a percentage greater than zero.
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