From pipeline famine to potential feast — after years of sporadic progress on the oil transportation front, a different landscape now faces western Canadian petroleum producers.

Last week, an ambitious pipeline agreement between Alberta and the federal government to jointly develop a major new oil line to the Pacific Coast took a step forward.

Varcoe: Pipelines aplenty, but more Alberta oil production needed to fill them Back to video

It follows separate proposals from pipeline operators Enbridge, South Bow and Trans Mountain Corp. to expand their systems by more than 1.2 million barrels per day.

On Monday, add the new Northern Shield Energy Corridor to the list. It’s a pitch by the Ontario and Alberta governments that could move up to 800,000 bpd of western Canadian crude into the country’s largest province.

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But will there be enough new production to fill all these lines in the coming years?

“We have to look at the time frame,” Premier Danielle Smith said Monday, standing alongside Ontario Premier Doug Ford to unveil the new concept.

“If you look at how we stage it, if we get the incentives right and we get the environment right to do new greenfield developments over 10, 15 years, I have absolute confidence that we’ll be able to do it.

“Remember, we are one of the largest (oil) reserves on the planet . . . We’ve got to think big, and we’ve got to be looking at being one of the top three energy producers and exporters in the world.”

On Monday, the two premiers announced the proposed route for an all-Canadian........

© Calgary Herald