Pembina Pipeline Corp. says while it remains interested in global export opportunities, it isn't devoting much time currently to exploring a potential purchase of the Trans Mountain pipeline.
The Calgary-based company formed a partnership in 2021 with Western Indigenous Pipeline Group for the purpose of pursuing an Indigenous-led equity stake in Trans Mountain.
But on Friday, the company reiterated its previously stated stance that there is too much uncertainty surrounding the pipeline right now to decide whether to pursue a purchase.
Pembina's chief financial officer Cameron Goldade said while the recent completion of the $34 billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project is a milestone, he added the Crown corporation behind the project is still locked in a dispute with oil companies over the tolls it wishes to charge to use the pipeline.
Tolls are the way a pipeline earns revenue, so the final tolling structure for Trans Mountain will directly impact the pipeline's value and the price a prospective buyer is willing to pay.
The Trans Mountain pipeline is currently owned by the federal government, but the government has said it does not wish to be the long-term owner and has already launched the first of what is expected to be a two-phase divestment process.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 10, 2024.