TransCanada, the Calgary, Alberta-based company that has two pipeline projects that would carry tar sands crude oil underneath South Dakota, posted a 20 percent increase in third-quarter profits, the company’s president said Tuesday.
TransCanada’s board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of 36 cents per common share for the quarter ending Dec. 31. Net income for third quarter was $390 million Canadian, or 67 cents per share, compared to $324 million Canadian, or 60 cents per share, for the same period in 2007.
“TransCanada’s strong third-quarter financial results demonstrate our ability to generate significant, sustainable earnings and cash flows from our growing portfolio of high-quality energy infrastructure assets,” said Hal Kvisle, TransCanada’s president and chief executive officer. “We continue to focus on delivering significant enduring value to our shareholders from a growing portfolio of large scale assets that include the recently acquired Ravenswood Generating Station in New York City, the restart program at Bruce Power in Ontario and the Keystone Pipeline system that will deliver Canadian crude oil to U.S. Midwest and U.S. Gulf Coast markets.”
Keystone Phase I is a 2,148-mile pipeline that would carry 590,000 barrels of crude oil daily through its 30-inch-diameter pipe from Hardisty to a refinery in Wood River, Ill., and storage and distribution centers in Patoka, Ill., and Cushing, Okla.
Keystone Phase II would run in a diagonal route from Alberta to northern Nebraska, where it would turn south to the Gulf Coast and meet up with the first phase of the Keystone project in Steele City, Neb.
Keystone Phase II would cost about $7 billion and would raise the project's total investment cost to about $12.2 billion.
Site work has begun in South Dakota on Keystone Phase I. Phase II construction is set to begin in 2010.
