Calgary-based Cenovus Energy has dispatched a tanker loaded at Burnaby, BC (per photo) with a first-ever shipment of crude oil via the Panama Canal destined for Irving Oil’s refinery in Saint John, New Brunswick. The oil shipment is making the 11,900 km journey aboard the tanker Cabo de Hornos, which departed from Burnaby last week.
Cenovus Vice-President Keith Chiasson described the operation as “a one-off” shipment for now, adding that “this Canadian success story has the potential over time to create significant value for both companies and the entire country.”
Two months ago, Irving, Canada’s biggest refinery operator, surprised the energy industry by announcing its plans to begin receiving more crude oil from Western Canada through the tanker route. This has followed the cancellation of the Energy East pipeline three years ago. Irving had applied this spring to the Canadian Transportation Agency to use foreign tankers to increase the volume of domestic crude it receives from offshore Newfoundland and Western Canada. (Photo Cenovus Energy Inc.)
