Kinder Morgan CEO says political solution needed for Trans Mountain project
Posted April 9, 2018 7:26 am.
Last Updated April 9, 2018 8:21 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CALGARY – Kinder Morgan’s chief executive says the company is open to discussing an investment in its Trans Mountain pipeline expansion by the Alberta government if there’s clear assurance that the project can actually be completed.
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley suggested Sunday the province could invest in the project to ensure completion of the pipeline expansion to carry Alberta bitumen from the oilsands to an export terminal near Vancouver.
Kinder Morgan CEO Steve Kean told a conference call Monday that he’s open to Notley’s suggestion, but there needs to be a clear political signal that there won’t be additional delays to the project.
Kinder Morgan suspended all non-essential activities and related spending on the project Sunday. The company has set a May 31 deadline for talks with “various stakeholders” to allow the project to proceed.
Kean says the opposition by the B.C. government is something that Kinder Morgan can’t resolve and suggested that either the province needs to change its position or the federal government must resolve the impasse.
Kinder Morgan has spent about $1.1 billion on the $7.4-billion project so far.
Kinder Morgan Canada shares open lower after it suspends pipeline work
Shares in Kinder Morgan Canada opened 18 per cent down Monday but trading in the oilsands companies it serves were mixed a day after it announced it was suspending all non-essential construction on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.
By 7 a.m. PT, Kinder Morgan Canada stock had recovered to $16.53, down $1.91 or about 10 per cent from Friday’s close, but the TSX/S&P Capped Energy Index, which tracks Canada’s largest oil and gas industry members, was up slightly on news of rising oil prices.
In a report, analysts at Desjardins say the warning ups the stakes but shouldn’t come as a surprise to those who have watched the company’s five-year struggle to win approval and build the pipeline.
It says the future of the project remains “cloudy” and warns the announcement will likely further entrench opposition activists by providing a calendar target.
It says Alberta Premier Rachel Notley’s declaration that her province is prepared to invest in the project is comforting and suggests that it could survive the company’s deadline.
In a statement on Sunday, CEO Alex Pourbaix of shipper Cenovus Energy Inc. warned there will be a “chilling effect on investment … across the entire country” if the project fails, recalling that TransCanada Corp. pulled the plug on its much-delayed $15.7-billion Energy East pipeline about six months ago.
