WASHINGTON, April 24 (Reuters) - Canada has approved a $4 billion natural gas expansion of Enbridge's Westcoast pipeline system in British Columbia, the company said on Friday, in a move that will add about 300 million cubic feet per day of capacity to the network.
The Sunrise Expansion Program is expected to contribute more than $3 billion to Canada's economy and involve the hiring of about 2,500 workers from local communities and indigenous groups during construction, Enbridge said.
The expansion
will include constructing new pipeline segments along the existing system, additional natural gas compression capacity and upgrades and modifications to existing facilities.
Shares of the company were up marginally in premarket trading.
Enbridge's Westcoast natural gas pipeline system stretches 2,900 kilometers (1,802 miles) from northeast British Columbia to the Canada-U.S. border, with a total current capacity of 3.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day.
Construction on the expansion project is scheduled to begin in July 2026, with a targeted in-service date in late 2028.
In May last year, Enbridge said it would sell a 12.5% stake in the Westcoast pipeline to Stonlasec8 Indigenous Alliance for C$715 million ($522.70 million), the first deal to include financing from a new federal loan program aimed at helping Indigenous groups own parts of resource projects.
($1 = 1.3679 Canadian dollars)
(Reporting by Katharine Jackson and Katha Kalia in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Swati Verma; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Jonathan Ananda)
