It’s been a year since the completion of its C$11 billion mergerwith Nova Corp., but TransCanada Pipelines finally came through onpromised savings yesterday. The pipeline company said it will give$70 million in merger-related savings to its pipeline customersthrough “targeted operating cost reductions.” An agreement on thereductions was filed with Canada’s National Energy Board and theAlberta Energy and Utilities Board yesterday.

Under the agreement, TransCanada will begin passing benefits onto customers in 2001 in the form of a lower operating costcomponent of transportation tolls. “TransCanada has a goal toreduce overall costs by $100 million by the end of 2000 as resultof the merger, with $70 million coming from our regulated pipelinebusiness,” said Doug Baldwin, TransCanada’s president, interim CEOand a member of the TransCanada Board of Directors. “Thisagreement, which provides our customers with a minimum of $35million in savings in 2001, demonstrates our confidence that we’reon track to achieve this goal.”

TransCanada will pass the first $35 million of the $70 millionin savings to customers through a reduction in the operating costcomponent of transportation tolls on its Mainline, Alberta andBritish Columbia pipeline systems in 2001. The remaining $35million will be felt in 2002.

The savings announcement follows by one week the installation ofa new executive management team at TransCanada and follows by twoweeks the resignation of CEO George Watson (see Daily GPI July 19and July 26).

©Copyright 1999 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. Thepreceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, inwhole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent ofIntelligence Press, Inc.