Southern Lights is a proposed pipeline that will transport diluent from the US Midwest to Edmonton, Alberta. A new 20-inch diluent pipeline from Chicago to Clearbrook, Minnesota, is planned subject to US regulatory approvals.
Enbridge noted that, the project involves reversing the flow of Enbridge’s Line 13 from Clearbrook, which currently transports light synthetic crude oil from Edmonton to Clearbrook, Minnesota. Once reversed, Line 13 would transport diluent received at Clearbrook to the Edmonton area.
Once completed, the Southern Lights diluent pipeline would have a capacity of 180,000 barrels per day (bpd). To replace the crude oil capacity of Line 13, the Southern Lights project also includes construction of a new 20-inch light sour crude oil pipeline from Cromer, Manitoba, to Clearbrook.
Patrick Daniel, president and CEO of Enbridge, said: We are very pleased that this major milestone in the project has been achieved. By increasing diluent import capacity, Southern Lights is very important to the economic development of western Canadian crude oil production.
