The Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB) has approved a 385-kilometre Enbridge pipeline in Alberta needed to bring increasing bitumen production, specifically from Imperial Oil's Kearl project, to the company's Edmonton hub.
The new 400,000-barrel-a-day pipeline will transfer oil from Fort McMurray to Sherwood Park starting in 2014, Enbridge says.
The company's application also includes two pump stations along the route.
Enbridge wants to build a $6-billion pipeline connecting oilsands crude to a West Coast port so the oil can be shipped to Asian countries.
A National Energy Board and Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency panel is in the midst of weighing the Northern Gateway proposal, which has stirred growing controversy in B.C.