Trans Mountain, the Canadian-owned oil pipeline company owned by the Canadian government, revised its standards last week for accepting crude oils on its newly expanded system. This was after buyers expressed concerns over the crude oil that arrived on the line.

The U.S. West Coast is expected to become a major market for Canadian heavy oil transported via the Trans Mountain expansion pipeline, also known as TMX. However, 10 companies including Valero Energy and Chevron told a regulator that the crude quality specifications of the pipeline could discourage their purchases.

Trans Mountain announced last week that it will replace its existing pool of Low TAN Dilbit (Total Acid Number) with a new pool of Pacific Cold Lake, or bitumen mixed with crude oil with a density less than 800 kilograms/cubic meter.

The filing stated that the acidity of Pacific Cold Lake and Pacific Dilbit will be restricted to a maximum 1.1 milligrams (KOH) of potassium hydroxide per gram. This is compared to an earlier limit, which was 1.3 mg/g. Acidity levels above a certain threshold can cause corrosion and damage to processing equipment.

Trans Mountain has also set vapor pressure limitations for its Pacific Cold Lake crude pool, Pacific Dilbit crude pool, and Synthetic Bitumen oil pools. These limits are less than 70 kilopascals (kPA) from May 1 to Nov. 30 and less than 76 kPa from Dec. 1 to April 30. Tanks leak more vapors when pressures are high.

Trans Mountain's regulatory filing states that "based on consultations with shippers, Trans Mountain proposes changes to the specifications of the heavy Crude Petroleum Pool". Trans Mountain said it would continue to work with its shippers to discuss changes to the pools of light crude oil.

Trans Mountain also stated that it was not aware that any Shipper intended to oppose Trans Mountain's revisions to the Service Standards for heavy crude pools. Reporting by Arathy Williams in British Columbia and Nia Somasekhar from Houston; editing by Josie Kao