TransCanada to Pay $10.2B for Columbia Pipeline

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – TransCanada Corp. has agreed to pay $10.2 billion for Columbia Pipeline Group Inc., which is a partner in Pennant Midstream LLC’s Hickory Bend Pipeline system in Ohio and western Pennsylvania.

The Hickory Bend system consists of a 50-mile gas gathering pipeline that stretches from Columbiana County, through Mahoning County, and then into Lawrence and Mercer counties in western Pennsylvania. It also includes a $150 million cryogenic plant in Springfield Township in Mahoning County, near the Pennsylvania border.

The gas-gathering and processing system is used to collect natural gas produced from wells in this section of the Utica shale. The Springfield cryogenic plant separates dry gas such as methane from “wet” gas such as butane, ethane and propane.

Another 30-mile pipeline was placed into operation to transport natural gas liquids from Springfield to a larger processing plant near Kensington in Columbiana County. From there, the wet gas is moved to a fractionation plant in Scio, Ohio, in Harrison County.

Columbia Pipeline was formed last year when Indiana-based NiSource spun off its natural gas assets into a publicly traded company.

TransCanada is behind development of the Keystone XL Pipeline, which was intended to connect oil fields in Alberta through a pipeline running southeast through Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska. However, last year President Obama rejected the project.

TransCanada’s purchase includes 15,000 miles of pipelines across the United States and underground storage and processing facilities now owned by Columbia.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.