Valero Energy Corp. and Chevron Corp. have entered the fray of buyers for oil traversing Canada's expanded Trans Mountain Pipeline system, signaling a potential shift in the West Coast's oil-sourcing landscape. Anonymous Bloomberg sources revealed on Friday that these refineries in California are set to receive cargoes of Cold Lake crude, a heavy grade from Canada's oil sands, loaded onto Aframax tankers out of the Westridge Terminal near Vancouver last June.
This expansion, originally valued at $33 billion, ballooned to $53 billion, reflecting the complexities and uncertainties of large-scale energy infrastructure projects. While the pipeline expansion promises to open up international markets for Canadian oil producers, tensions have simmered between environmentalists and stakeholders advocating for increased pipeline capacity.