(Bloomberg) -- The expanded Trans Mountain pipeline has entered commercial operation, concluding a decade-long wait for one of Canada’s largest and most controversial energy projects.

The expanded pipeline received the final regulatory clearance it needs to start shipping crude from the oil sands to Canada’s Pacific Coast on Tuesday. The pipeline was 70% full and all deliveries for shippers are subject to the new tariffs and tolls, the company said. Tankers can begin loading crude from the new line around the middle of May. 

Trans Mountain’s startup marks the finish line for a project beset by years of delays, construction mishaps, legal battles and fierce environmental opposition. The pipeline ended up costing C$34 billion ($25 billion), more than six times the original estimate, and its start date was seven years later than originally planned.

Still, the expansion almost triples the capacity of the line to 890,000 barrels a day, vastly increasing the volume of crude that Alberta’s oil producers can ship to growing Asian markets. Those new buyers also are expected to lessen producers’ dependence on US refiners and support pricing for Canadian crude.

Oil-sands producer Cenovus Energy Inc., which plans to use the new pipeline, expects Trans Mountain to help Canadian heavy crude trade at a smaller discount to US benchmark West Texas Intermediate “for years,” Chief Executive Officer Jon McKenzie said in an earnings call Wednesday. But the project took too long to build, he said.

“We need to find ways to get major projects built, to get infrastructure built to the benefit of all Canadians,” he said. “I think we would all realize that 13 years is far too long for a project of this national importance to get built.”

Cargoes off the new line are already scheduled to be shipped to China, California and India. Tankers will be able to begin receiving oil from the expanded pipeline by mid-May, Trans Mountain said.

Many residents of British Columbia and indigenous communities viewed the pipeline as a threat to the environment and fought its construction. The battle became so fraught that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government bought Trans Mountain from Kinder Morgan Inc. in 2018 to save the project from cancellation.

(Updates with Cenovus’s comment starting in fifth paragraph)

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