Canada has moved closer to opening a major new crude export route to Asia, advancing plans for a Pacific Coast pipeline that could add more than 1m barrels per day of tanker-loading capacity from southern British Columbia.
Prime minister Mark Carney and Alberta premier Danielle Smith unveiled the proposed route this week, saying the line would run from Bruderheim, northeast of Edmonton, to the southern British Columbia coast, broadly following the existing Trans Mountain corridor. The project is aimed at reducing Canada’s dependence on the US market and giving Alberta crude greater access to Asian buyers.
The project would deepen Canada’s emergence as a Pacific crude exporter and create another long-haul aframax and potentially suezmax trade into Asia, depending on terminal configuration, parcel size and buyer demand.
The Trans Mountain Expansion, which came online in May 2024, has already reshaped Canadian crude flows. Canada’s energy regulator said the expansion nearly tripled Trans Mountain system capacity to 890,000 barrels per day and increased western Canadian tidewater export capacity by around 700%. An average of 23 vessels per month departed the Westridge marine terminal between June 2024 and July 2025.
Asian demand is already doing much of the pulling. Around two-thirds of all Canadian crude exports from the Trans Mountain system were destined for Asia-Pacific in the year to November 2025, with more than three-quarters of heavy crude exports from Vancouver heading to the region.
The new pipeline remains politically and environmentally sensitive. Carney said Canada would preserve the oil tanker ban off northern British Columbia, while the proposed southern route would keep the project within an already established energy corridor.
