TransCanada wants to negotiate deal with North Slope producers

Petroleum News

According to a Feb. 22 Reuters report, TransCanada chief executive Hal Kvisle is hoping to open talks with Alaska North Slope producers to convince them to take his route through Canada with a gas line from Alaska’s North Slope vs. a new route proposed by both the producers and TransCanada rival Enbridge.

Kvisle told Reuters in an interview that he prefers to negotiate his differences with the producers versus trying to force them legally to use the right of way through Canada for a North Slope gas pipeline granted the company under Canada’s Northern Pipeline Act, passed almost 30 years ago when a pipeline was first proposed.

“The resolution of how the pipeline gets through the Yukon and northern (British Columbia) is something we really want to work on and resolve in a commercial sense with the Alaska producers, rather than in any legal way,” Kvisle said.

North Slope producers BP, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil have said the Northern Pipeline Act route is outdated and could expose builders of the pipeline to legal action, Reuters reported.

Enbridge and the producers want Canada’s National Energy Board to hold new hearings on the project which could result in a new right of way through Canada.

But Kvisle thinks using his right of way under the act is the quickest way of getting the line built. NEB hearings could be lengthy, he said. “And we don’t want this project to go back on the back burner and be on hold for a long period of time.”

On Feb. 16 Alaska House Speaker John Harris said TransCanada would be making a presentation to the House Republican caucus “in a couple of weeks.”