TransCanada puts stake in $6.2 billion Coastal GasLink pipeline up for sale

Sale would be TransCanada’s biggest divestment yet

TransCanada Corp. hired RBC Capital Markets LLC to manage the sale of its majority stake in the $6.2 billion Coastal GasLink pipeline in what would be the company’s biggest divestment yet.

If TransCanada moves forward with a sale, joint venture partners could end up owning as much as 75 per cent of the conduit, the company said in a filing to the National Energy Board dated Jan. 25.

Calgary-based TransCanada has sold various assets in the past few years as it strengthens its balance sheet and seeks to fund $36 billion of capital projects, including the expansion of its Alberta gas network and constructing pipelines in the U.S. In December, it agreed to sell a gas-fired generating station in Arizona for $623 million.

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TransCanada has also said it’s considering offloading assets and bringing in partners to fund its controversial $10.6 billion Keystone XL crude oil pipeline, which is awaiting a new U.S. environmental review.

The company had previously flagged the potential divestment in Coastal GasLink. There has been “substantial” interest from potential partners, and it ultimately plans to own 25 per cent to 49 per cent of the project, an executive said on a conference call in November.

Coastal GasLink is under construction and is expected to go into service into 2023. It will be 670 kilometres long and carry gas through British Columbia to Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s proposed $41 billion LNG Canada export terminal on the province’s coast. It will provide a key outlet for Alberta producers hammered by bottlenecks that have sent regional prices for the fuel plunging.

Indigenous protesters halted work on the conduit before a tentative deal was reached earlier this month to allow building work to resume.

[Top photo: Demonstrators support the Transcanada Coastal GasLink pipeline in downtown Calgary in early January.Darren Makowichuk/Postmedia]