TransCanada cuts 185 jobs in major shakeup

Most positions under the axe are in Calgary

CALGARY — Pipeline builder TransCanada Corp. has confirmed it laid off 185 people — most stationed in Calgary — from its major projects department on Tuesday morning in a bid to cut costs and improve efficiency.

The move is the first significant confirmed layoff by a midstream company in Calgary this year although large-scale layoffs have become common among producers and oilfield services companies as capital budgets are squeezed by low oil and gas prices.

“This morning 185 workers within the major projects department were advised that their positions have been eliminated,” wrote TransCanada spokesman Mark Cooper in an email reply to a Calgary Herald inquiry.

“This includes approximately 100 full-time employees (the remainder are contractors) who have been advised that their positions have been eliminated.”

Cooper said the bulk of the positions being eliminated are in Calgary, although the department has employees throughout North American operations.

He said the job cuts are part of a restructuring “designed to ensure we move forward with our $46-billion capital growth plan in a way that meets the needs of our customers, while allowing TransCanada to remain competitive and deliver incremental value for our shareholders.”

He said the company is treating its former employees and contractors “fairly and respectfully.”

Analysts who spoke on condition of anonymity speculated TransCanada’s downsizing is partly because of a lull in its line of projects, noting that its King’s North Connection gas pipeline project in southern Ontario received National Energy Board approval last week and is expected to enter service by 2017.

TransCanada also has projects that have been delayed, the largest of which is the proposed $12-billion Energy East oil pipeline. TransCanada recently pushed back the pipeline’s startup more than a year to 2020.

TransCanada is also the company proposing the Keystone XL pipeline to the U.S. Gulf Coast which has endured years of delays.

But Cooper said the layoffs aren’t caused by any particular project.

“These reductions were made primarily as a result of a significant restructuring of the entire major projects department to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of how we deliver all of our large-scale capital projects going forward,” he said in a second email.