TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canada’s largest oil and gas transport company Enbridge posted profit gains in the third quarter ended September 30, with strong demand from Canadian oil producers to move their products south to the US encouraging the company to implement its $36-billion growth plan by 2017.

Enbridge's adjusted earnings rose 4% year-on-year to $278-million, or $0.34 a share. This was a penny shy of analyst expectations of adjusted earnings of C$0.35 a share, on revenues of C$6.2-billion.

The Calgary-based pipeline company more than doubled its third-quarter net earnings to $421-million, or C$0.51 a share, up from $187-million, or C$0.36 a share, a year earlier.

Enbridge has proposed the increase of oil transportation capacity through projects including the C$6-billion Northern Gateway pipelines from Alberta to Canada’s Pacific Coast.

However, the pipeline project, which entails the construction of two pipelines stretching 1 177 km from the Alberta oil sands to a tanker port on the North Coast of British Columbia, with the capacity to move 525 000 bbl/d of oil, was deemed to hold too great an oil-spillage risk, and its proponents presented too little evidence that risk factors would be mitigated, the newly elected Liberal government of the province, under the leadership of Premier Christy Clark, said recently when it rejected the project.

“During the third quarter, we continued to add to our record slate of commercially secured growth projects and advanced on a number of other potential opportunities currently under development. In total, 14 new projects have come into service to date in 2013. We remain on track to achieve full-year adjusted earnings per share well within our guidance range of $1.74 to $1.90 per share,” president and CEO Al Monaco said in a statement.

He added that the current North American energy fundamentals, combined with the strategic positioning of the ompany’s assets were driving significant investment opportunities for Enbridge both in the short and long term.

"In the third quarter, our board approved our five-year strategic plan, which we expect will generate significant shareholder value through growth of 10% to 12% in average annual adjusted earnings per share and dividends over the next five years. The strategic position of our assets, our inventory of projects in development and new growth platforms also position us to maintain industry-leading growth beyond 2017,” Monaco said.

Enbridge is Canada’s largest transporter of crude oil, with about 24 738 km of crude pipeline, delivering on average more than 2.2-million barrels a day of crude oil and liquids.

The company also exports about 65% of Western Canadian oil, which represented 13% of the US’s daily crude oil imports, the company’s website states.