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Enbridge Inc. plans to boost pipeline capacity by some 825,000 barrels a day over the next five years – including roughly 400,000 b/d next year – as the company works to alleviate export bottlenecks that have depressed prices in the Western Canadian oil industry. However, the company wants refiners and producers to commit under long-term contracts to ship specific volumes on its main export pipeline system, which currently carries 2.85 million barrels of crude a day to the United States. At an investors’ day conference in New York on Tuesday, the Calgary-based company said it expects oil sands companies to add more than one million barrels a day of production over the next decade, and that it intends to expand its export network to get more Canadian crude to markets in the U.S. Midwest and Gulf Coast. Enbridge is currently negotiating with oil producers and refiners to overhaul the way it provides space on its mainline system, with the intent of having 90 per cent of the volume covered by long-term contracts. “We’re going as fast as we can,” Enbridge chief executive Al Monaco said on a call with reporters. “We understand the importance of capacity in the marketplace. […]
