Canada faces an uphill battle to recoup the roughly C$35 billion ($25.74 billion) in taxpayers' money it has sunk into the Trans Mountain oil pipeline, as uncertainty over shipping tolls and a limited pool of buyers cloud the asset's unique strategic value.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The federal government plans to sell Trans Mountain once a long-delayed expansion to nearly triple the flow of crude from Alberta to Canada’s Pacific Coast is completed early next year.
The sale, however, has seen muted interest from other pipeline operators due to higher financing costs, while long-term investors like the pension funds are likely to steer clear on concerns about exposure to fossil fuel assets, analysts said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government bought Trans Mountain in 2018 for C$4.5 billion to rescue the expansion project, which has struggled with years of regulatory delay and massive cost overruns.
Trans Mountain Corp (TMC) CEO Dawn Farrell told local media last week the sale could wrap up by early 2025, just as Canada heads into a federal election.
The vast majority of Trans Mountain’s long-term value will be determined by tolls that are still not finalised, said Stifel Canada analyst Michael Dunn, adding he would be “surprised” if the government recovered its full investment in a sale.
The difficulty of building new pipelines and guaranteed tolling revenue makes Trans Mountain attractive to First Nations, said Paul Poscente, CEO of Axxcelus Capital, which advises Indigenous communities on infrastructure investments.
The original article contains 776 words, the summary contains 197 words. Saved 75%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!