Foothills Pipe Lines ‘head office’ could be on the move

Gary Park, PNA Canadian correspondent

Foothills Pipe Lines Ltd., the lead promoter of an Alaska Highway gas pipeline for more than 20 years, may be on the verge seeing its identity shrink in Calgary.

TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. and Duke Energy Corp., the joint owners of Foothills, are pondering a move that would see Foothills close its office and move its operations across downtown Calgary into the TransCanada head office.

A Duke spokeswoman told the Calgary Herald Sept. 19 that the partners are “certainly looking (at the move) very seriously.” although a TransCanada spokesman said the decision-making is in a “preliminary stage.”

TransCanada suggested the transfer could involve the head office functions, leaving a small group of Foothills 55 employees to work on the details of an Alaska Highway pipeline.

Among analysts, the shuffle makes sense, especially for Duke, which is under pressure to squeeze unnecessary spending out of its budget.

Foothills, which has exclusive rights to build and operate the Canadian portion of the Alaska Highway project, holds 62 percent of the Alaskan Northwest Natural Gas Transportation Co. and has a 25 percent stake in the Alaskan North Slope Project Sponsor Agreement.

It delivers more than one-third of all Canadian gas exports to the United States through the so-called “pre-build” portion of the Alaska Highway project, which opened in 1981 and delivers gas from Western Canada.

The “pre-build” was installed to help finance the far costlier northern section of a delivery system from the North Slope.

It currently ships 2.2 billion cubic feet per day on the eastern leg to the Midwest and 1.1 billion cubic feet per day to California and the U.S. Pacific Northwest.