Enbridge agrees $3.3 bln Canadian natural gas assets sale

Enbridge has agreed to sell its Canadian natural gas gathering and processing business in the Montney, Peace River Arch, Horn River and Liard basins in British Columbia and Alberta to Brookfield Infrastructure for CAN $4.31 billion ($3.28 billion).

The business includes 19 natural gas processing plants and liquids handling facilities, with a total operating capacity of 3.3 Bcf/d and 3,550 km of natural gas gathering pipelines, Enbridge said.

“When combined with asset monetizations announced in May, the sale of our Canadian G&P Business significantly advances our strategic priority of moving to a pure play regulated pipeline and utility business model,” said Al Monaco, president and CEO of Enbridge.

With a total of roughly $7.5 billion in asset monetizations announced in 2018, Enbridge more than doubled its initial target of $3 billion.

Separate sale agreements have been entered into for those facilities currently governed by provincial regulations (Alberta and B.C.), and those governed by federal National Energy Board regulations, Enbridge said.

The transaction involving the sale of the provincially regulated facilities is expected to close in 2018, while the transaction involving the sale of the federally regulated facilities is anticipated to close in mid-2019.

Proceeds from these transactions provide significant additional financing flexibility going forward as Enbridge continues to execute on its current portfolio of growth projects.

Enbridge will continue to hold its long-haul regulated natural gas transmission assets which include the Westcoast transmission system in British Columbia and the Alliance pipeline that carries natural gas from western Canada to the Chicago market.