TransCanada to raise funds with stock sale

Alaska Gas Inducement Act (AGIA) licensee elect TransCanada plans to raise funds by selling more stock (LINK). The C$1 Billion should help TransCanada as their business strategy is tested by lower prices and lower demand for the products they transport, and the $250 Million hit they took when Lehmans went out of business.

Concerning TransCanada's efforts on the Alaska Gas Pipeline the Wall Street Journal says: (LINK):

Gov. Palin focused on passing the $500 million incentive package and selecting Calgary-based TransCanada to develop the 1,700-mile pipeline. But TransCanada needs commitments from the three big producers controlling the gas on Alaska's North Slope before it can secure financing for the project. And those companies are balking. Exxon Mobil Corp. has so far refused to participate. BP and ConocoPhillips are backing their own pipeline and have expressed reservations about joining the state-backed pipeline.

Companies spend millions mapping gas line route

By Amanda Bohman (Fairbanks NewsMiner) (LINK)

Published Saturday, October 4, 2008

FAIRBANKS — The two companies competing to build a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope to Alberta, Canada, are spending tens of millions of dollars as they continue efforts to map a route in time to start lining up customers in 2010.

Denali — The Alaska Gas Pipeline is backed by two major oil producers, BP and ConocoPhillips. TransCanada, a pipeline company based in Calgary, Alberta, is developing its gas line project in coordination with the state of Alaska. Which project prevails depends on federal regulators and market conditions years from now. Gas isn’t expected to flow before 2018.

TransCanada is doing similar work.

Tony Palmer, TransCanada’s vice president for Alaska Development, said his company has done aerial photography of the Alaska portions of the route and documented the Canadian section on special 360-degree video.

The company has hired an environmental planner for the Alaska section, Palmer said.

TransCanada also is in the midst of hiring companies to complete geotechnical and terrain mapping of the route as well as engineering and design for a gas treatment plant at Prudhoe Bay, Palmer said.

“The bulk of our field work will be completed in the spring or summer of 2009,” he said.

Palmer estimated TransCanada will have spent $84 million by 2010, when it will try to line up customers. TransCanada has agreed to conditions set by the state, which has promised to reimburse about half of that money.

TransCanada Alaska Project on Despite Natgas Price

By Frank Pingue (LINK)

TORONTO, Oct 2 (Reuters) - TransCanada Corp (TRP.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Thursday the slide in natural gas prices does not dampen the outlook for its proposed Alaska gas pipeline, which would deliver natural gas to U.S. markets from Alaska's North Slope.

TransCanada Chief Executive Hal Kvisle told reporters after a Toronto speech that natural gas prices often hit their lowest level of the year around September and October before turning around during the winter months.

"The commodity price is always a big concern and a big risk on a project like (Alaska) but I still don't think we're in an environment of falling natural gas prices," said Kvisle. "The real comparison is what was the bottom in the gas market this year versus what it was a year ago, and we're actually up a bit over a year ago."

The price of natural gas fell as low as $7.43 on Thursday, which is off considerably from the $13.69 reached in July, but comfortably above the 2007 low of $5.19 touched in September.

In August, TransCanada won approval from Alaskan lawmakers to construct a 1,700-mile (2,700-km) line to an existing pipeline hub in Canada that would send about 4 billion cubic feet of Alaska natural gas a day to U.S. markets.

Conoco and TransCanada Want Exxon To Join Gas Pipeline Effort

From CNN Money:

Conoco favors "taking ExxonMobil into the Denali project," said Brian Wenzel, Conoco's vice president of Alaska Gas Development. He added that the company would consider partnering with any other company that "provides value" to the project.

TransCanada has said Exxon's participation could be vital to its project.

ExxonMobil hasn't committed to either pipeline, although it has said it wants to participate in a project that would ship gas from the Point Thomson natural gas field on Alaska's North Slope, to the lower 48 states. The company said Thursday it wants to work with BP, Conoco, TransCanada and the Alaskan government to build a natural gas pipeline.

Exxon says they are ready "(Dow Jones)- Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) said Thursday it's ready to work with the Alaskan government and three companies competing to build a natural gas pipeline in the state, even as a dispute over leases revoked in 2006 looms in the background.