TransCanada kept the chopping block busy last week with thefinalizing of its U.S. midstream asset sale to the Coastal Corp. The$26 million transaction was originally revealed in November (see DailyGPI, Nov. 24) and completely exitsTransCanada from the U.S. midstream business.

The assets acquired in the transaction are located in southernLouisiana. They include TransCanada’s interests in four natural gasprocessing plants capable of processing up to 2.1 Bcf/d, threenatural gas liquids fractionation plants with a capacity of up to90,000 b/d of NGL, 380 miles of NGL pipelines, a 2.4 million barrelNGL storage facility, and TransCanada’s U.S. NGL marketing andtrading operations. The transaction closed Dec. 29.

“The final sale of these assets again demonstrates TransCanada’scontinuing commitment to execute its plan of selling all assets notassociated with our core natural gas transmission, power generationand marketing activities in Canada and the northern tier of theUnited States,” said Doug Baldwin, TransCanada’s CEO.

Earlier this year, TransCanada announced its plan to divest of thecompany’s U.S. midstream and U.S. NGL marketing and tradingbusinesses, as well as ANGUS Chemical Co. (ANGUS). The sale of ANGUSto The Dow Chemical Co. closed Oct. 1. The net gain on disposition ofthese businesses will be recorded in the fourth quarter and is in linewith TransCanada’s previously announced approximately CDN$700 millionafter-tax charge against 1999 fourth quarter earnings. The sale ispart of the company’s overall $3 billion asset purge expected to becompleted by 2002 (see Daily GPI, Oct. 27).

Coastal said the move made sense because of the location of theassets. “This transaction builds on our natural gas integrationstrategy,” said David A. Arledge, CEO of Coastal Corp. “Thefacilities in Louisiana are relatively close to our growing naturalgas production from the Gulf of Mexico and connect to several majorinterstate pipelines, including one operated by Coastal subsidiaryANR Pipeline Co.”

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