Confidence is waning in a new oil pipeline being chosen for a speedy federal review within the next year, a recent business sentiment survey from ATB Cormark Capital Markets suggests.
The investment firm canvassed executives representing 24 energy services firms, 22 exploration and production companies and 17 institutional investors on a range of topics between March 18 and April 1.
Forty-six percent of respondents said they believed it was either highly probable or probable a new pipeline project would be added to the list of projects deemed to be in the national interest under federal legislation passed last year.
That’s down from the 52 percent of respondents who expressed those views in a survey done between Aug. 28 and Sept. 11 of last year. That was more than two months before Alberta and Ottawa announced a sweeping energy accord laying out conditions for a new West Coast oil pipeline to move ahead….