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Duke wraps up Westcoast takeover
Gary Park PNA Canadian Correspondent
Duke Energy Corp. has become the first U.S. pipeline to get its foot in Canada’s door to the Arctic by completing a takeover of Westcoast Energy Inc., Canada’s most aggressive pipeline company.
The deal was wrapped up March 7 when the Canadian government joined shareholders, courts and regulators in both Canada and the U.S. in approving the $8.5 billion takeover that includes $5 billion in debt.
In swallowing a 50-year-old Canadian institution, North Carolina-based Duke said it has taken another step towards a transportation infrastructure that will connect energy supply and energy markets in Canada and the United States. In the process it takes control of Westcoast assets valued at C$10 billion and spread across Canada. Alaska Highway proponent The domestic interests are dominated by Westcoast’s monopoly on gas gathering and transmission in British Columbia; a 37.5 percent stake in the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline; 23.6 percent of the 1.5 billion cubic feet per day Alliance line from British Columbia to Chicago; and joint ownership with TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. in Foothills Pipe Lines Ltd., a chief proponent of the Alaska Highway project.
The combined gas-related assets will include 18,900 miles of transmission pipeline, 58,700 miles of gathering line,16,500 miles of distribution lines, 241 billion cubic feet of gas storage and 84 processing facilities.
Duke group President Fred Fowler said Canadian gas will be needed to meet growing demand in the Lower 48 with predictions that 70 percent of forecast production growth in Canada by 2010 will come from Canadian sources. He said his company strongly believes that much of the supply will be from basins in Western and Eastern Canada and eventually from Alaska and the Mackenzie Delta.
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