Enbridge Nabs Customer Base, Pipelines in Questar Acquisition

Written by Daniel Graeber for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--North American midstream company Enbridge Incorporated (NYSE:ENB) (Calgary, Alberta) said Monday it gets more than 21,000 miles of pipe and 1.2 million new customers west of the Rockies after closing on its acquisition of Questar Gas Company (Salt Lake City, Utah).

Questar becomes part of the gas distribution and storage business unit of Enbridge, doing business as an Enbridge division in Idaho, Utah and Wyoming. Prior to the close, Questar and its related Wexpro companies were part of Dominion Energy Incorporated (NYSE:D) (Richmond, Virginia).

For Enbridge, Questar brings 1.2 million customers west of the Rocky Mountains, 21,000 miles of gas distribution and transmission pipelines, a liquified natural gas (LNG) storage facility and interconnections to several interstate natural gas pipelines.

"Questar Gas and Wexpro enhance the scale and breadth of our existing low-risk utility business model and support our long-term dividend growth profile by providing stable, predictable cash flows," said Michele Harradence, the president of gas distribution and storage at Enbridge.

The region served by Questar is diverse. Idaho consumes far more energy than it produces but relies on renewable energy resources for more than half of its total in-state electricity. Hydroelectric power had dominated the sector until drought and other forms of clean energy moved to the grid. Most of its gas comes from outside the state.

Utah, meanwhile, has nearly 90% of its population using natural gas as their primary heating source, the highest for any U.S. state. It also has the fourth-largest amount of oil and gas leases on federal lands, though the electricity sector remains dominated by coal-fired plants.

Wyoming is rich in fossil fuels, accounting for about 3% of the nation's total marketed gas production and 2% of total crude oil output. Coal, meanwhile, still accounts for the bulk of the energy consumed in the state.

Enbridge, however, was cleared last month to start work in Wyoming on the Cowboy Solar Farm, which will boast around 770 megawatts (MW) of power and 269 MW of battery energy storage.

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For the companies involved, Enbridge reported first-quarter net income of $1.02 billion (USD), compared with $1.24 billion during the same period last year, though that was better than analysts had expected.

Dominion too took a loss, though many energy companies reported taking a hit due to general weakness in commodity prices such as oil and natural gas. The company has touted its progress on various offshore wind energy projects along the Atlantic Coast.

\The agreement with Enbridge was first announced in September. The deal was clinched for roughly $4.3 billion. Shares in Enbridge were down slightly in Monday trading.

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