Terminals
Terminals are facilities intended to temporarily stage products to be transported in the pipelines or products that have been transported in the pipelines before being sent to their ultimate destination. Like all facilities in the Trans Mountain Pipeline System, the terminals have a number ofspill prevention andleak detection measures. In addition to continuous monitoring from the Control Centre, and ongoing inspection and maintenance, the facilities are equipped with automated leak detection and emergency shutdown systems, as well as secondary containment systems to avoid environmental damage in the unlikely event of an incident.
Edmonton Terminal— The beginning of the Trans Mountain Pipeline System, Edmonton Terminal is supplied by 20 incoming feeder lines bringing products from all over Alberta. The products are held in 39 storage tanks, with a shell capacity of approximately 9.02 million barrels prior to being shipped through the pipelines. There are also two pump stations, one at the beginning of each pipeline.
Edmonton Terminal is also the site of the main Control Centre for the Trans Mountain Pipeline System, which remotely monitors all aspects of the pipeline operations using a sophisticatedSupervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system.
Air quality is closely monitored at Edmonton Terminal. Here is a link to access the ambientair monitoring information.
Related Links
Kamloops Terminal— Kamloops Terminal is an intermediate point on the Trans Mountain Pipeline System. At this terminal there are two pump stations and two relief tanks with a shell capacity of approximately 160,000 barrels.
Sumas Pump Station and Terminal — Both located in Abbotsford, BC, the Sumas Pump Station routes crude oil delivered on the Trans Mountain Pipeline System through to Burnaby Terminal as well as to Washington State via the Trans Mountain Puget Sound Pipeline System, and Sumas Terminal stages products destined for the Puget Sound System. Sumas Terminal has seven storage tanks with a shell capacity of approximately 890,000 barrels.
Air quality is closely monitored at Sumas Terminal. Here is a link to access the ambientair monitoring information.
Burnaby Terminal— The end point of the Trans Mountain Pipeline System mainlines, Burnaby terminal houses 26 storage tanks with a shell capacity of approximately 5.5 million barrels. The terminal serves as a local distribution point, for crude oil and refined products to local terminals, the local Parkland refinery, and Westridge Marine Terminal.
Air quality is closely monitored at Burnaby Terminal. Here is a link to access the ambientair monitoring information.
Westridge Marine Terminal — Located within Port Metro Vancouver, Westridge Marine Terminal is capable of accommodating ships up toAframax-size. In addition to loading tankers, the facility also receives and ships jet fuel to the Vancouver International Airport through the Pembina Jet Fuel Pipeline.
Air quality is closely monitored at Westridge Marine Terminal. Here is a link to access the ambientair monitoring information.
Pipeline System
Trans Mountain Pipeline System has been in operation since 1953, and the two mainlines (including the new Line 2) extend over a length of approximately 1,183 kilometres. The system starts in Edmonton, Alberta and terminates on the West Coast of British Columbia in Burnaby. Thirty- three active pump stations located along the pipeline route maintain the system’s 890,000 barrel per day (bpd) (142,500 m3 per day) capacity flowing at a speed of six to eight kilometres per hour, depending on the pipeline. In addition to the pump stations, four terminals in Edmonton, Kamloops, Abbotsford and Burnaby have storage tanks for staging oil before and after it travels on the pipelines.
Each component of the system performs specific tasks to keep North America’s only petroleum pipeline system to the West Coast operating safely and efficiently. The pipelines ship products through a process called batching, allowingmultiple products, including crude oil, refined and semi-refined products in batches one after the other through the pipelines for differentshippers.
As product flows through the pipelines, conditions such as elevation changes, fluid friction, and the delivery points, change the pressure along the pipe. All these factors determine the optimum location of pump stations and changes in the diameter of the pipelines to optimize performance and, in some situations, lessen the demand for additional pump stations
At the Sumas delivery point in Abbotsford, BC, the Trans Mountain Pipeline connects with the Trans Mountain Puget Sound Pipeline, a system that has been shipping Canadian crude oil products since 1954 to Washington state refineries in Anacortes and Ferndale. This 111 kilometres (69 miles) pipeline system is made up of 16 to 20 inch pipe and has the capacity for up to about 240,000 bpd (38,200 m3 per day) depending on petroleum types transported and the balance of deliveries between the two destinations.
Pump Stations
Located at varying intervals along the pipelines, determined by terrain and pipeline diameter, 33 electrically powered pump stations keep the product flowing. The pressure along the pipelines drops progressively between the outlet point of one station and the inlet point of the next.
The pump stations are equipped with instrumentation and controls to ensure safe operation within protective limits. This equipment monitors pressures and other parameters and will automatically shut down pumping under certain circumstances. In addition, the pump station leak detection and containment systems are monitored continuously from the Control Centre located in Edmonton, AB. In the event of a leak alarm, the automatic emergency shutdown will isolate the station and trigger a call out for operating personnel to investigate.
In addition to the automated features, local operators and maintenance personnel inspect the pump stations regularly and perform various types of preventative maintenance to ensure continued safe operations.
