Enbridge Pipelines - Waupisoo Pipeline

Large-scale development in Alberta's oil sands is propelling significant growth in Western Canadian crude oil production. Oil sands producers need expanded access to new and existing markets for these increased supplies of Canadian crude. To develop this market access, Enbridge Pipelines (Athabasca) Inc. has been working with oil sands producers to develop a new pipeline from the Fort McMurray region to Edmonton.

The proposed Waupisoo Pipeline would link producers to their upgraders and refineries in the Edmonton area as well as to connections with Canada's interprovincial oil pipeline systems. From Edmonton, the new supplies of crude oil and refined products could be shipped to markets in British Columbia, Ontario and the U.S. Midwest. Waupisoo is currently slated to be put into service mid-2008. ©

In October of 2006, Moody International (Canada) commenced third-party inspection services on the line pipe being manufactured and coated for this pipeline at IPSCO and Shaw Pipe in Regina Saskatchewan.  Production continues through to the end of 2007.

The Name Waupisoo © 

Waupisoo was a Cree chief in the early 1700s who acted as middleman between native hunters of the west and the fur factories of Hudson Bay. At York Fort in 1715, Chief Waupisoo told Hudson Bay governor James Knight of a river with banks of "gum or pitch" - tar, in 18th century terms. In 1719, when Henry Kelsey had replaced Knight as governor, Waupisoo gave Kelsey a sample of "that Gum or Pitch that flows out of the Banks of that River." Though Europeans thought it worthless, the area's aboriginal people found the tarry bitumen a very effective waterproof seal for canoe seams.

Enbridge has named its newest oil sands pipeline in honor of Chief Waupisoo, source of history's first known references to the Athabasca oil sands.

© 2005 Enbridge Inc. All rights reserved.