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Investors reportedly interested in Coastal GasLink stake
BRITISH COLUMBIA
POTENTIAL investors are reportedly show- ing an interest in buying a stake in TC Energy’s Coastal GasLink pipeline project. Citing anony- mous sources familiar with the matter, Bloomb- erg reported this week that the interested parties include Mubadala Investment, Abu Dhabi’s sov- ereign wealth fund.
TC Energy is seeking to sell up to 75% in Coastal GasLink, according to a regulatory fil- ing from January. It is not clear how much TC Energy is seeking from a sale, but the project is estimated to cost CAD6.2bn ($4.7bn) to build in total.
TC Energy told Bloomberg that while it does not comment on “market rumours”, it continues to advance funding plans for Coastal GasLink, which could include the sale of a stake in the project.
The Coastal GasLink pipeline would carry gas from the Montney shale play to the British Columbia coast, serving the LNG Canada pro- ject that is currently under construction and due
to enter service in 2023. The 416-mile (670-km) pipeline is also expected to come online that year. TC Energy’s push to sell assets in an effort to strengthen its balance sheet and fund capital projects follows its $10.2bn takeover of Colum-
bia Pipeline Group in 2016.
The company also continues its efforts to
move forward with construction of the Key- stone XL cross-border pipeline, which has been held up by years of regulatory and legal delays. TC Energy said this week that it is holding off on pre-construction activities related to the pro- ject while a judge considers a challenge against it by two environmental groups. The company decided not to start the work as previously planned on October 1, opting instead to wait until US District Judge Brian Morris holds a hearing on the issue on October 9.
Pre-construction activities are still antici- pated to be carried out during the remainder of 2019, assuming TC Energy does not encounter any further legal hurdles.
Newfoundland and Labrador boosts offshore resource assessment
NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR
THE Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador has raised its estimate of oil and gas reserves in its waters following the latest inde- pendent assessment of its resource potential, conducted by Beicip-Franlab. The 2019 assess- ment has identified a further 3bn barrels of oil, as well as 5.8 trillion cubic feet (164bn cubic metres) of natural gas. In total, the provincial government said in a statement, there is a combined resource potential of 52.2bn barrels of oil and 199.6 tcf (5.7 trillion cubic metres) of gas in just 9% of New- foundland and Labrador’s offshore.
“The purpose of embarking on this annual independent resource assessment is to broaden our understanding of the underexplored frontier basins and add to our geotechnical knowledge of the area,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Minis- ter of Natural Resources, Siobhan Coady, said. “The resource potential in our offshore is incred- ible. We have over 650 leads and prospects iden- tified to date, eight new entrants in the past three years, and CAD4bn [$3bn] in recent exploration work commitments.”
Beicip-Franlab’s CEO, Jean Burrus, said his company had carried out detailed interpretations
of existing and new data, both well and seismic, in the Carson-Bonnition-Salar basins. The data came from nine parcels that are on offer in the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) 2019 South East- ern Newfoundland Call for Bids, which is due to close on November 6, 2019.
“The data integration approach applied was designed to rigorously assess uncertainty and risk, which allowed the generation of various probable alternative resource evaluation scenar- ios, confirming significant hydrocarbon poten- tial in the area,” Burrus said.
This is the province’s fourth scheduled licens- ing round, with further rounds scheduled up to 2024 that will follow the same process, with resource assessments being conducted and released prior to bids closing.
Newfoundland and Labrador’s oil industry has been hit hard by the oil price downturn, with offshore exploration slowing down. Norway’s Equinor has previously said that it expects to sanction the Bay du Nord project in the Flemish Pass Basin offshore the province in 2020, with first oil subsequently anticipated in 2025.
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