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“We’re still showing a gap this year and most of next year,” Millington said. “Some of these upgrades aren’t going to happen overnight.”

That gap is partially because of a one-year delay to Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline replacement through Minnesota, which the company initially expected would be in service by the end of 2019. Additional pipelines such as the federally owned Trans Mountain Expansion and TC Energy’s Keystone XL will be needed for longer-term growth.

“Longer term, we’d still need the Line 3 replacement, and TMX and to a certain extent Keystone XL,” Millington said.

The additions could add up to “real volumes” on the country’s pipeline network but there is some risk that regulatory delays along the route, whether in Canada or the U.S., could impede the ability to bring on new capacity, said Samir Kayande, director with RS Energy Group in Calgary.

“You need to have all of the pieces together. If one of the dominoes is missing, then you get caught somewhere,” said Kayande.

He also said it’s a bit confounding that the pipeliners hadn’t made these additions to their existing pipes earlier, given the challenges of getting crude oil out of Canada.

Still, the unexpected additions are providing some small hope for the energy industry, which is trying to find a way to clear a glut of oil built up in Alberta. Though producers have shut-in production, existing pipelines are maxed out.

“The good times appear to be rolling in Canada in recent weeks, or at least combatting some of the rough (pipeline opposition related) bumpiness,” Tudor Pickering & Holt analysts said in a research note.