Canada formally invokes 1977 pipeline treaty with US over Line 5 dispute

• Financial

On Monday, Ottawa had formally summoned a 1977 treaty with Washington amid a garrulous debate with the US State of Michigan over Enbridge Inc’s Line 5 pipeline, ratcheting up heats over a long-running dispute about one of the major oil export pipelines in Canada.

In factuality, Enbridge Inc’s Line 5 transports 540,000 barrels of oil per day or a roughly 0.6 per cent of entire global crude oil production alongside refined petroleum products from Wisconsin to Ontario. Nonetheless, latest leg of debate over Enbridge’s Line 5 came forth as the US state of Michigan had been looking to shut down the pipeline amid concerns that any leak which could develop on a four-mile long section of the pipeline what runs below the Straits of Mackinac in the Great Lakes, could be catastrophic.

Tension mounts as Canada officially invokes 1977 pipeline treaty with US

On top of that, earlier in the year, the US State of Michigan had ordered the pipeline to cease operation, however, Enbridge had ignored the legal notice.

However, as both sides appeared to be engaging in a rattling courtroom battle over Line 5, Government of Canada had formally pushed its American peer to intervene over the issue aimed at keeping the pipeline open. In a letter to a Michigan Federal Judge Gordon cliff who had bene presiding over the case, the Canadian Government had formally invoked Article Six of a 1977 Pipeline Transport Treaty with the United States.

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Enbridge Tracy Larsson in an emailed statement following the proceeding, “We greatly appreciate the efforts of ‘Team Canada’ – from the Government of Canada to the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and Saskatchewan for their commitments and efforts to keep Line 5 open”.