Pipeline giant Kinder Morgan to sell remaining assets in Canada

US-based energy infrastructure firm Kinder Morgan is reportedly exploring the sale of its Canadian business after facing setbacks in the country due to environmental, political and legal hurdles.

The company has appointed investment bank TD Securities to find a potential buyer for its remaining assets in Canada, Reuters reported citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

The proposed sale, which marks the company’s exit from the country, is valued at around C$2.4bn ($1.8bn).

Kinder Morgan plans to divest the Edmonton, Alberta and Vancouver Wharves terminal businesses, as well as the Canadian section of the Cochin pipeline, which transports light hydrocarbon liquids between the US and Canada.

The company was working on the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline system to help oil companies to access new markets.

Planned to be developed at a cost of around C$7.4bn ($5.6bn), the expansion project involved a twinning of the existing 1,150km pipeline between Strathcona County, Alberta and Burnaby, British Columbia and tripling the capacity of the system to 890,000 barrels per day.

The pipeline expansion project, which welcomed support from Alberta and Ottawa, faced repeated setbacks, with the British Columbia Government, environmental groups and First Nations groups going all out in their protest against the project.

Last month, a Canadian court cancelled the federal government’s approval of the Trans Mountain expansion.

The court ruled that the National Energy Board, in its report presented to the government, did not consider an increase in tanker traffic off the coast of British Columbia due to the pipeline expansion project.

The ruling also stated that the federal government did not adequately address aboriginal concerns.

Following the ruling, Kinder Morgan closed the sale of the Trans Mountain pipeline to the Canadian Government for a consideration of around C$4.5bn ($3.5bn).