Weyburn– Saskatchewan Energy and Resources Minister Dustin Duncan does not have concerns regarding the announced sale of Enbridge’s south Saskatchewan gathering system to Tundra Energy & Marketing Ltd.
On Oct. 7, Duncan told Pipeline News in his Weyburn–Big Muddy constituency office, “I don’t think it was a surprise, knowing that Enbridge, moving into the big Spectra merger, was looking at what was core, what was non-core assets to them, and trying to get out of some of their business to do some of the merger.
“Our understanding is it really has no impact on companies that are feeding into the distribution line at this point, and no real impact on employment. I think, overall, it’s a positive for the province to see a company like Tundra furthering their investment in Saskatchewan.
“Premier Wall has had conversations with some of the people. I’m in the process of connecting with Tundra. I look forward to furthering that relationship and welcoming them to the province in a bigger way,” Duncan said.
Asked if he was concerned about having a smaller corporate entity than Enbridge running that pipeline gathering system, with regards to their fiscal capacity to deal with a major spill, Duncan replied, “No. It isn’t a concern. Obviously we need operators with the wherewithal and the size of company to not only maintain the operations, but respond to any difficulties in the future. I think, for Tundra, they would have had to do their due diligence with the age of the pipe, the operations of the pipe in the past. As a company, they would have to factor that in. I suspect a company (like) the Richardsons and Tundra, if it wasn’t something they couldn’t take on, they wouldn’t have. They’ve been in business a long time for a reason. They’re good operators and a good organization.
“From our standpoint, it doesn’t really raise a flag that it’s transferring from a company the size of Enbridge to Tundra. We’ll work with them, as we do with all of our operators, pipeline and otherwise, and make sure we’re doing our part on the regulatory side, and they’re doing their part as an operator,” Duncan said.
