Northern Border Pipeline Company Announces Sale of Bison Pipeline LLC
Northern Border Pipeline Company, along with its owners, TC Pipelines, LP and ONEOK Partners, L.P., announced the sale of its wholly owned subsidiary, Bison Pipeline LLC, to TransCanada Pipeline USA Ltd..
The assets of Bison Pipeline LLC include executed precedent agreements, as well as regulatory, environmental and engineering activities completed to date on the Bison Pipeline Project (Bison Project). Project subscription that is subject to certain conditions currently stands at 405 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d). Northern Border will retain the executed downstream contracts by shippers on the Bison Project for capacity from Port of Morgan, Montana, to Ventura, Iowa, on the Northern Border system.
As a part of the transaction, TransCanada has committed to proceed with constructing the Bison Project, pending the removal of contingencies, or combining it with the proposed Pathfinder Pipeline Project (Pathfinder Project).
The proposed 289-mile, 24-inch diameter Bison pipeline system would extend from natural gas gathering facilities located in the Powder River Basin supply area to a point of interconnection with the Northern Border system in Morton County, North Dakota. The initial capacity of the Bison Project is anticipated to be approximately 400 MMcf/d. The projected in-service date is late 2010.
“This transaction positions the Bison Project to potentially combine with TransCanada’s proposed Pathfinder Project that would interconnect with the Northern Border system,” said Paul F. Miller, vice president and general manager of Northern Border.
“The success of Bison or Pathfinder would significantly diversify natural gas supply and potentially increase demand for transportation services on the Northern Border Pipeline, which serves the Chicago and Midwest markets.”
The proposed Pathfinder Project is an approximately 625-mile, 36-inch and 42-inch diameter interstate pipeline that would transport natural gas northeast from Meeker, Colorado, through Montana to the Northern Border system in North Dakota for delivery into the Ventura and Chicago-area markets. The initial capacity is 1.2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), with an ultimate capacity of 2.0 Bcf/d. The anticipated Pathfinder Project in-service date is late 2010.
