Trans Mountain pipeline construction to restart, but prospective buyers stay on sidelines – by Geoffrey Morgan (Financial Post – August 21, 2019)

https://business.financialpost.com/

CALGARY – Construction is poised to restart on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion but even as activity ramps up, at least one prospective buyer — Pembina Pipeline Corp., fresh off its purchase of Kinder Morgan Inc.’s remaining Canadian business — said it’s not interested for now in “the noise” of the controversial pipeline.

Trans Mountain Corp. announced Wednesday that construction would re-start imminently in multiple communities along the pipeline route and the project would be in service, delivering 590,000 barrels of oil per day from Alberta to the West Coast, by the middle of 2022.

The company said that by the end of the year, 4,200 people would be working on the pipeline project. “Clearly this project has been subjected to numerous delays and setbacks over the past several years,” Trans Mountain president and CEO Ian Anderson said in a release.

“With today’s announcement on the commencement of construction, I firmly believe that we are finally able to start delivering the significant national and regional benefits we have always committed to.”

The federal government purchased the Trans Mountain pipeline and expansion project to twin the line in 2018 from Houston-based Kinder Morgan Inc. for $4.5 billion and has been looking for a buyer for the pipeline network since that time.

For the rest of this article: https://business.financialpost.com/commodities/energy/trans-mountain-construction-to-restart-but-prospective-bidders-staying-on-the-sidelines-for-now