Enbridge history

4, 1950, Alberta Premier Ernest Manning and Canadian federal minister C.D. Howe opened the valve on IPL’s inaugural line to start moving oil eastward; the first oil arrived in Superior two months later, on Dec.

The year 1953 also marked the entry of a second oil pipeline venture, the Trans Mountain Oil Pipe Line Company, to ship Alberta crude to distant markets west.

The line entered service in 1954, a development that provided a direct connection between the Alberta oil fields and Canada’s petro-chemical heartland in Ontario.

By 1955, the first year in which IPL did not undertake major construction, the system's capacity had grown to 217,000 barrels per day on the Edmonton-Regina section, 193,000 between Regina and Gretna, 163,000 between Gretna and Superior, and 147,000 between Superior and Sarnia.

1956: IPL owns and operates the longest crude oil pipeline in the world.

Oil consumption had been growing at a rate of 7 percent annually since the end of World War II. By 1967, IPL was moving crude to refineries in Ontario, Buffalo, Detroit, Toledo, and other points in the United States and required yet more delivery capacity for markets east of Superior.

1969: IPL completes its Chicago Loop, beginning deliveries to Chicago a year later.

Following the opening of the Chicago market, deliveries increased in 1970 by 16 percent, bringing total throughput to about 900,000 barrels per day.

When OPEC raised prices in 1971 and began to ship refined products for the first time, about 85 percent of the oil and gas production and 99 percent of the oil refining in Canada was in the hands of foreign corporations, according to T.C. Douglas, head of the New Democratic Party.

In early 1972, OPEC again raised its prices upward for Arab crude, and that year, IPL's average deliveries exceeded one million barrels a day.

IPL began to prepare its application to the NEB for the new pipeline in late 1973.

The new pipeline first delivered oil in June 1976 and reached its planned delivery level of 250,000 barrels per day in December.

Subsequent uncertainties about environmental regulations slowed project growth and led to the 1977 shelving of some projects.

Meanwhile, in 1978, after two years of public hearings on tariffs, IPL was placed under direct rate regulation by the NEB. Tariffs were designed to reduce revenues by approximately 5 percent for the Canadian system, excluding the Montreal extension.

By 1981, IPL was looking seriously for diversification options.

In 1983, IPL built the Norman Wells pipeline and joined Frontier Pipeline Company.

The company initiated a three-phase expansion plan to build capacity and handle the increase in heavy oil shipments, and enjoyed record earnings for the fifth consecutive year in 1985.

Notwithstanding this slump, the company went on to complete the second phase of capacity expansion in 1987.

In 1991, it changed its name to Interprovincial Pipe Line Inc.

As late as 1993, IPL represented a single line of business, a crude oil pipeline system.

In 1994, the company again changed its name to IPL Energy Inc.

In 1995, in its first international venture, it embarked on developing OCENSA, a new Colombian pipeline, along with TransCanada PipeLines.

In December 1996, in a very significant move, IPL Energy acquired Consumers’ Gas, Canada’s largest natural gas distribution system that served, at that time, more than one million customers in Ontario, Quebec and New York.

In 1997, IPL launched a new subsidiary, Consumersfirst, opening the first of five retail stores that sold natural gas and electric products and services to customers.

IPL, which now had two business units, Energy Transportation and Energy Distribution, changed its name again in 1998 to Enbridge Inc.

Also in 1999, Enbridge was awarded the exclusive franchise to develop and operate a natural gas distribution network for the province of New Brunswick.

Enbridge completed the acquisition of Houston’s Midcoast Energy Resources in 2001 – giving the company an expanded presence in the natural gas transmission business, and significantly widening its geographical presence in North America.

In 2005, Enbridge acquired Shell Gas Transmission, which included ownership interests in 11 natural gas transmission and gas gathering pipelines in five major offshore Gulf of Mexico corridors.

In 2006, it announced the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines Project from Athabasca to Kitimat, British Columbia.

In 2009, Enbridge bought the Sarnia Photovoltaic Power Plant and expanded it up to 80 MW, which was the world's largest photovoltaic power station at that time.

Today, Enbridge is the leading pipeline operator in the Fort McMurray to Edmonton and Hardisty corridors, with 12 oil sands projects connected to the Enbridge system as of March 2014.

On September 6, 2016, Enbridge agreed to buy Spectra Energy in an all-stock deal valued at about $28 billion.