Transcanada

Quebec’s public utilities board has thrown its weight behind distribution company demands for national protection against the costs of TransCanada Corp.’s proposed Energy East partial conversion of its natural gas Mainline to oil service.

TransCanada Corp. has set out to obtain a speedy verdict on plans to overhaul and enlarge its pipeline network by brushing aside objections from natural gas distribution companies in Ontario, Quebec and the northeastern United States.

Canada’s three biggest natural gas distribution companies are calling for a timeout to be imposed on TransCanada Corp.’s C$13.5 billion (US$12 billion) grand design for an overhaul of the national pipeline network.

TransCanada Corp. gave natural gas shippers a promise Thursday that the proposed partial conversion of its Mainline to oil service will only proceed when all their firm transportation requirements are fulfilled.

Supertanker oil cargoes will refill vacant natural gas capacity in TransCanada Corp.’s Mainline as early as the autumn of 2017, according to a two-volume blueprint for the Energy East conversion project released Tuesday.

Lingering risks of ruptures, explosions, fires and breakdowns haunt the western supply side of TransCanada Corp.’s natural gas delivery network 16 years after a corporate merger included taking over the aging system.

A friend in high places has stepped forward to support TransCanada Corp.’s plan for enabling growth in U.S. shale gas exports to Ontario and Quebec by working with their distributors on additions to northbound pipeline capacity.

Last weekend’s natural gas supply emergency that gripped parts of the Canadian province Manitoba, as well as Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota, was coming to an end Tuesday as TransCanada Pipeline crews continued working to repair sections of a Mainline lateral that were damaged by an explosion Saturday.

An early Saturday morning explosion and fire on a lateral of the TransCanada Mainline in Manitoba left thousands without natural gas service amid freezing temperatures and prompted the closing of some schools in the region, according to pipeline notices and media reports.