Digging deep into the talk about shipping oil from Hudson Bay/James Bay and this week’s announcements

 

If you haven’t been following closely, it would be easy to get confused about the flurry of announcements and projects involving exporting products, including oil, from ports on Hudson Bay. In recent days and weeks there has been discussion of not one, but three possible export ports on Hudson Bay and James Bay (the southernmost appendage of Hudson Bay). One is the existing and operating Port of Churchill. The second would revive the failed attempt at building a port over 100 years ago at the mouth of the Nelson River. That’s Port Nelson. The third is an apparently so far nebulous port somewhere on James Bay that at this point does not exist, either.

The discussions involve not just ports, but “utility corridors,” “energy corridors,” pipelines and more.

And there have been agreements signed and smiles all around, but there’s numerous issues among the projects – one of which popped up during the July 21 Episode 14 of the Pipeline Online Podcast.

Here’s some digging into what’s going on:

 

Churchill

First of all, Churchill have been around a long time, but it was not the first choice for a port on Hudson Bay over 100 years ago. Initially the Hudson Bay Railway was supposed to go to Port Nelson. That new port was to be built on a small artificial island connected by a railway causeway to the bank of the mouth of the Nelson River. However, it was abandoned in 1918 as silting was major issue.

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As the outlet from Lake Winnipeg to the ocean, the Nelson River is the pathway for almost all the rivers on the southern part of the Prairie Provinces,. Thus, silt literally all the way from Banff or Fargo, North Dakota, could theoretically travel through the river systems that lead to Port Nelson. However, in the century since, Manitoba Hydro has built a series of power dams along the Nelson River that not only provides most of that province’s power generation, but dramatically reduces silting.

But when the Port Nelson project was abandoned, the Hudson Bay Railway was diverted instead north, to Churchill, crossing hundreds of kilometres of problematic muskeg which has been the bane of the railway’s existence its entire nearly 100 years in service due to its unstable railbed and flooding.

 

Despite this, Churchill was indeed built out as a port, albeit one with a limited shipping season due to ice on Hudson Bay and in the Hudson Strait. That shipping season generally runs from July until November, at best. Churchill’s anemic usage over decades has been well documented, which has why it has never been substantially expanded.

 

Step forward to 2025. In mid-July, Arctic Gateway Group, which owns and operates the rail line and port, announced it was “currently undertaking major infrastructure improvements at the Port of Churchill and along the Hudson Bay Railway. With expanded freight operations, new construction at the Port of Churchill, and upcoming port modernization projects, AGG is investing in long-term strength for Canada’s Arctic trade corridor.”

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“The Port of Churchill is primed to become a major Canadian trade asset,” said Chris Avery, CEO, Arctic Gateway Group, said in a release. “The investments we are making are setting the stage for a new era of growth and Northern economic activity, unlocking the trade and transportation potential of Canada’s Arctic Trade Corridor to better serve the Canadian national interest.”

It added, “A second weekly wayfreight train is now operating along the Hudson Bay Railway, following successful efforts to train and hire new conductors for the Northern workforce. This expansion has also been made possible by years of investment in railway rehabilitation and new technologies that keep the railway strong and safe. The Hudson Bay Railway is now in its best condition in more than 30 years.”

 

On July 22 at a First Minister’s conference at Huntsville, Ontario, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, and Arctic Gateway Group (AGG) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to strengthen trade through the Port of Churchill.

“Saskatchewan remains committed to strengthening trade across Canada by supporting and developing new transportation corridors,” Moe said in a release. “Streamlining access to ports, such as Churchill will allow our goods better access to new and emerging international markets. Today’s MOU between Saskatchewan and Manitoba is another way we are building on that progress and creating new opportunities for our industries.”

This agreement seeks to strengthen supply chains, bolster regional economies, reduce costs and emissions, enhance market access and foster sustainable growth, said the Saskatchewan government release.

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According to the Manitoba press release:

The MOU outlines a five‑year roadmap with annual progress reviews, formalizing a shared commitment to:

• expand infrastructure – AGG will invest in port and rail assets and lengthen the shipping season to support increased freight capacity;

• activate trade networks – the Saskatchewan government will mobilize commodity producers and exporters through its trade offices and regional industry partners; and

• mobilize federal support – the Manitoba government will lead efforts to secure federal infrastructure funding and regulatory support to improve connectivity to northern markets.

 

“Churchill presents huge opportunities when it comes to mining, agriculture and energy,” Kinew said. “Through this agreement with AGG and Saskatchewan, we are going to unlock new opportunities for businesses in Manitoba and Saskatchewan to get their goods to market.”

Part of this MOU includes connecting producers, processors, industries, and exporters in Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the Arctic Trade Corridor. It also prioritizes efforts to secure federal infrastructure funding and regulatory support to improve connectivity. This will help streamline trade, ensuring efficiency and resilience in getting Saskatchewan and Manitoba goods to market, the Saskatchewan release said.

“Manitoba and Saskatchewan understand the strategic value of the Port of Churchill and Hudson Bay Railway, especially as Canada looks to diversify trade and become an energy superpower,” Arctic Gateway Group CEO Chris Avery said. “This joint commitment from Premiers Kinew and Moe is a clear signal that Canada’s Arctic Trade Corridor will play a major role in this country’s trade and transportation future. As an established, efficient link to world markets, with economic reconciliation built into everything we do, the Port of Churchill is actively shipping, open for business, and ready to deliver for prairie producers and Canadian exports – while returning the benefits to AGG’s Indigenous and northern ownership communities.”

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“Saskatchewan is the stable and reliable supplier of food, fuel, fertilizer, and critical minerals the world needs to ensure food and energy security. The Government of Saskatchewan supports initiatives that promote national infrastructure such as the development of corridors and gateways. This increased focus on a northern trade corridor will build opportunities, create jobs and ensure economic prosperity now and into the future,” said the Saskatchewan release.

On various social media, Moe posted, “This week Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew and I signed a memorandum of understanding with Arctic Gateway Group (AGC) to further strengthen trade through the Port of Churchill.

“Last year, goods from our province reached 161 countries around the world, making strong supply chains and export infrastructure crucial to our economy. I was proud to partner with Premier Kinew and AGG on the development of this vital corridor that will offer producers and shippers more options for reaching international markets.

“Saskatchewan is committed to a port-to-port corridor that would connect energy and other goods to Canada’s northern Pacific and Arctic coasts. This MOU does just that and creates new opportunities for both Saskatchewan and Manitoba industries.”

Additionally he posted, “It was a good meeting with the other Premiers and the Prime Minister, but now we need action on avoiding tariffs, eliminating interprovincial trade barriers and building national projects like pipelines and rail lines.”

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Port Nelson and NeeStaNan

The second proposal in the works is for northern corridor that would run from Fort McMurray, across northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba to Port Nelson. This project is known as “NeeStaNan,” which is Cree for “all of us.” It claims to have the backing of several First Nations.

On Monday, July 21, the Pipeline Online Podcast featured Blaine Merserau, a Calgary-based advisor working with NeeStaNan. He’s a geologist with long experience in oil and gas.

 

The corridor map he provided shows a rough path from Fort McMurray to south of La Ronge to The Pas and finally following the Nelson River to close to the abandoned Port Nelson site.

But surprisingly, the project does not include an oil pipeline, even though if fully built out, the “utility corridor” would originate at Fort McMurray.

Merserau said, “One of the two big threats or problems that industry has to get over when they look at large, linear projects like this is, can they get First Nation support for the project? And can they get they have confidence in getting the environmental approvals?

“So what the concept here is that NeeStaNan And will undertake to assemble a corridor with contiguous pieces of First Nations control land, and we will do the environmental assessments for anything that goes in that corridor. So we get those two biggest hurdles over with in developing the corridor.

“In the corridor itself was just intended to be a corridor, and it would be a corridor that would be available to other companies that wanted to develop a power line or a rail line, a road or a telecommunication line or a pipeline. We’ve tried to stay away from oil pipelines, because a lot of the nations that we’ve talked to along the right-of-way would prefer not to have an oil pipeline through the corridor. So we do hold out the possibility of having bitumen, which is considered crude oil to be a solid form, like pucks, like hockey pucks. We have considered moving bitumen by rail all the way to tidewater and for markets that we believe are in Europe for asphalt binder. So not trying to send oil over to Europe to have it burned and create CO2 emissions, but sending bitumen over to help them with building roads and whatnot in Europe.”

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Asked about the incongruity of making a corridor to Fort McMurray, but not wanting a pipeline for its principal product – oil – Merserau explained, “It was more for the bitumen aspect, rather than crude oil by rail in. The corridor itself was intended to have a rail right away along it to allow bitumen by rail to get to Tidewater in Hudson Bay. So we have not, we have not proposed an oil pipeline, but we have talked to people that would like to move bitumen by rail, but no one has approached us yet on putting an oil pipeline in the corridor.”

There’s an additional factor: In 1996, Wapusk National Park was established which makes up the shoreline and interior lands from just adjacent the abandoned Port Nelson to most of the way to Churchill. For NeeStaNan to succeed, Fox Lake Creen Nation would need to establish treaty land entitlement to basically take a small portion of that land back from the park for development of the new port.

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James Bay

The third concept appears to be a very recent development, with Ontario Premier Doug Ford talking about a deep water port on James Bay.

There’s a big problem with that, however. There is no “deep water” on the Ontario shores of James Bay. At least, not deep enough for large cargo ships like oil tankers.

Taking a close look at bathymetric charts of the Ontario portions of James Bay, the water is very shallow for many kilometres off the coast, especially around Fort Albany/Kashechewan or Moosonee. Anywhere close to shore is only three to four fathoms deep. (There’s six feet to a fathom). That’s 5.5 to 7 metres. A full-fledged VLCC (very large crude carrier supertanker) needs 23 metres to accommodate their drafts. That’s the depth of the 53-kilometre long dredged channel into the Port of Rotterdam, the largest port in Europe, that’s the main receiving point for tanker traffic.

The next smaller class of tankers, known as Aframax, have drafts of 12 to 16 metres. This is the class of thankers used for the Trans Mountain Westridge Terminal at Burnaby, BC.

Dredging capacity since the failed attempt at Port Nelson has grown considerably over the last century. China has built entire islands in the South China Sea from dredging reef. And Rotterdam does have that long channel leading to it. But any port on James Bay would require massive amounts of dredging. Indeed, the NeeStaNan concept would involve an artificial island built two kilometres off of the coast, connected by a causeway and protected by a breakwater. Building an artificial island would required substantial dredging to provide the material. But anything on James Bay could require a lot more dredging than that.

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Moosonee has the advantage that it already has an existing railhead. Fort Albany has no rail access. Moosonee is the terminus for the Ontario Northland Railway. It does not actually reach the shore of James Bay, ending 19 kilometres from the bay.

If an oil pipeline was to be built to James Bay, the most likely route would be to parallel the TC Energy mainline as far as Cochrane, Ontario, then roughly follow the Ontario Northern Railway right-of-way to Moosonee. If an existing pipe in the TC mainline was converted to oil service, as the Energy East Pipeline project had conceived, the length of new pipe would be roughly 300 kilometres to the coast.

 

So why is James Bay significant?

On June 22, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith welcomed Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe in joining the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to build the new pipelines, rail lines and other energy and trade infrastructure necessary to bring Ontario critical minerals and Western Canadian oil and gas to new markets.

Ford and Smith originally signed the MOU on July 7 during the Calgary Stampede. Notably, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew has not signed on. The July 23 Winnipeg Sun headline read, “Kinew walks away from pipeline deal,”

That story said, “Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew chose not to sign a new interprovincial trade agreement unveiled Tuesday by Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario, citing the need for Indigenous consensus before moving forward with major infrastructure projects.”

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The Sun story added, “Our government will not treat consultation as a box to check after decisions are made,” he said. “We believe reconciliation requires shared decision-making from the start.”

In a release, Ford said, “As the world grapples with President Trump’s unfair tariffs, it’s more important than ever to build a resilient and self-reliant economy here at home.”

Ford added, “This agreement sends a clear message: Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan are ready to get shovels in the ground and move forward on projects that will secure our long-term prosperity.”

 

The MOU calls for the new pipelines to be built using Ontario steel along a route that will connect western Canadian oil and gas to new and existing refineries in southern Ontario, as well as a new deep-sea port in James Bay. The MOU also calls for new rail lines, also built using Ontario steel, to connect critical mineral deposits located in Ontario’s Ring of Fire region to ports in Western Canada.

“We are sending a clear signal that Canada’s energy future will be built by Canadians, for Canadians,” said Premier Moe. “This agreement commits our provinces to work together to unlock new markets, shore up our supply chains from mine to port and advocate for the federal reforms our industry needs. By advancing pipelines, rail connections and critical-mineral processing capacity, we are safeguarding thousands of jobs, strengthening our energy security and fostering sustainable growth.”

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  0098 SASPO-2874_Self Serve Campaign_New Connects_Youtube_v3
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  0095 Fast Trucking nearly 70 years good at it
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  0053 Kingston Midstream Westspur Alameda Click Before You Dig
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  0092 Turnbull projects big and small
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  0046 City of Estevan This is Estevan Teaser
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  0087 Lori Carr Coal Expansion
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  0077 Caprice Resources Stand Up For Free Speech
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  0061 SIMSA 2024 For Sask Buy Sask
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Under the agreement, Saskatchewan joins Ontario and Alberta in a coordinated effort to accelerate the development of major nation-building projects, according to the release, which added, “This initiative reflects a shared commitment to supporting workers and industries across provincial boundaries while reducing Canada’s reliance on any single trading partner.”

“We’re taking action to grow our economy, build real infrastructure and get major projects moving,” said Premier Smith. “Alberta is proud to lead the way in uniting with provinces that share a vision for responsible development, economic freedom and common sense. We’re standing up for our oil and gas sector and making sure our world-class resources reach the markets that need them. Together, Alberta, Ontario and Saskatchewan are showing what’s possible when provinces step up. This agreement is about building a stronger, more connected Canada, one project at a time.”

As part of the agreement, the three provinces will advocate for a more competitive federal regulatory environment alongside an updated federal review process based on the “One Project, One Process” principle with deference to provincial processes. Each province also reaffirmed its commitment to fulfilling its duty to consult with Indigenous communities and to support meaningful participation in economic opportunities for Indigenous communities and proponents, including through equity partnerships in major projects.

 

Ice

A key factor for all of these announcement is the fact Hudson Bay, James Bay, and the Hudson Strait freeze over, all the way to past the northern tip of Labrador. Without substantial icebreaking capacity, year-round shipping would be impossible.

The Canadian Coast Guard just ordered two polar-class icebreakers, and their cost was $3.15 and $3.25 billion each.

Without icebreaking, shipping heavy oil or bitumen (dilbit) from Fort McMurray becomes problematic in that oil pipelines generally need to run 24/7/365. If shipping is not available year round, substantial storage would be needed at the port. Pipeline Online addressed that issue at length here.

 

• 0098 SASPO-2874_Self Serve Campaign_New Connects_Youtube_v3
  0098 SASPO-2874_Self Serve Campaign_New Connects_Youtube_v3
• 0100 Turnbull Project Manager
  0100 Turnbull Project Manager
• 0099 Mryglod Steel 1080p
  0099 Mryglod Steel 1080p
• 0097 Eagle Sky Ventures LTD
  0097 Eagle Sky Ventures LTD
• 0095 Fast Trucking nearly 70 years good at it
  0095 Fast Trucking nearly 70 years good at it
• 0053 Kingston Midstream Westspur Alameda Click Before You Dig
  0053 Kingston Midstream Westspur Alameda Click Before You Dig
• 0092 Turnbull projects big and small
  0092 Turnbull projects big and small
• 0046 City of Estevan This is Estevan Teaser
  0046 City of Estevan This is Estevan Teaser
• 0087 Lori Carr Coal Expansion
  0087 Lori Carr Coal Expansion
• 0077 Caprice Resources Stand Up For Free Speech
  0077 Caprice Resources Stand Up For Free Speech
• 0076 Latus only
  0076 Latus only
• 0061 SIMSA 2024 For Sask Buy Sask
  0061 SIMSA 2024 For Sask Buy Sask
• 0055 Smart Power Be Smart with your Power office
  0055 Smart Power Be Smart with your Power office
• 0051 JML Hiring Pumpjack assembly
  0051 JML Hiring Pumpjack assembly
• 0049 Scotsburn Dental soft guitar
  0049 Scotsburn Dental soft guitar
• 0041 DEEP Since 2018 now we are going to build
  0041 DEEP Since 2018 now we are going to build
• 0032 IWS Summer hiring rock trailer music
• 0022 Grimes winter hiring
• 0021 OSY Rentals S8 Promo
• 0018 IWS Hiring Royal Summer
• 0013 Panther Drilling PO ad 03 top drive rigs
• 0006 JK Junior
• 0002 gilliss casing services
  0002 gilliss casing services
• 9002 Pipeline Online 30 sec EBEX
  9002 Pipeline Online 30 sec EBEX
• 9001