After putting its 50% interest of the Express System crude oil pipeline on the market last December as part of CEO Doug Baldwin’s $3 billion divestiture program, TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. (TCPL) finally found a buyer in Alberta Energy Company Ltd. (AEC) for a net total of $60 million. Included in the sale is TransCanada’s 50% interest in Marquest marketing entities which act as shippers on the system.

Upon the expected close of the acquisition in early November, AEC, already a 50% interest holder, will own the entire Express System. The system consists of 1,700 miles of crude oil pipeline which form the Express Pipeline and the Platte Pipeline. The lines connect Canadian and United States producers to refineries located in the U.S. Rocky Mountains and other Midwest regions. The system has a capacity of 172,000 b/d.

The total purchase price of the pipelines is expected to be $90 million, but TCPL is making a $30 million contribution to Marquest. AEC will also assume about $295 million in project debt.

The sale of Express continues TCPL’s divestiture program to free up capital to pay off debt (see Daily GPI, Dec. 9, 1999).

In September the company’s subsidiary entered an agreement to sell its natural gas gathering and processing assets in Saskatchewan to VISTA Midstream Solutions Ltd., and it agreed to sell Cancarb Ltd. and an associated 45 MW power plant to Sid Richardson Carbon Co. for $160 million (see Daily GPI, Sept. 14; Sept. 28).

“With the sale of Express, we have sold, or have agreements to sell approximately $3 billion in assets from our divestiture program,” said TransCanada spokesman Glenn Herchak, “The remaining assets under the program we anticipate will be sold by the end of this year.” Herchak said the remaining properties included in the program are mostly natural gas pipeline assets in Latin America.

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