Enbridge Line 3 work at 40% as it tops profit estimates
CALGARY• Pipeline operator En bridge Inc. reports better-than-expected secondquarter earnings of $1.07 billion, as it worked to sell a number of non-core assets to help eliminate debt.
The Calgary-based company’s profit amounted to 63 cents per share and compared with $919 million, or 56 cents per share in the second quarter of 2017. Both quarters included the impact of a number of unusual items.
Adjusted earnings came in at 65 cents per share, up from 41 cents in the year-earlier period and beating analysts expectations for 53 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon.
During the quarter, the company announced agreements to sell $7.5 billion worth of non-core assets, significantly above its original $3 billion target.
Enbridge, Canada’s largest pipeline operator, said in May it would gain nearly $3.2 billion by selling renewable power facilities and natural gas gathering and processing assets in the United States.
The company won a key approval in June from a Minnesota regulator to replace the 1,660-kilometre long pipeline, which began service in 1968 and operates at half its capacity. On Friday, Enbridge said it had completed 40 per cent of the replacement work.
A replacement would allow the pipeline, which runs from Alberta to Wisconsin in the United States, to return to approved capacity of 760,000 barrels per day.
The company reaffirmed Line 3 is expected to be in service in the second half of 2019.
“With that project moving forward, we have higher confidence in the company’s growth outlook for cash flow and dividends,” said Edward Jones analyst Jennifer Rowland.
Western Canadian oil producers see it as crucial for ramping up crude supplies.