Canada’s largest pipeline company announced a C$1.7-billion investment in a 497-MW North Sea wind farm late last week, in a quarterly earnings call that also revealed quarterly profits that fell short of expectations.
“The opportunity is generally pretty large, and we have got a team in Europe looking at these opportunities, scouring through them, and so hopefully there will be more coming along,” Enbridge Inc. CEO Al Monaco told investors.
“The 50% ownership in EnBW’s Hohe See strengthens Enbridge’s footprint in Europe’s booming offshore wind power industry,” Reuters notes.
Enbridge’s profits were off, at C$365 million, with the company logging a $373-million impairment charge after the federal cabinet refused construction of the controversial Northern Gateway pipeline. But Monaco waxed eloquent about his company’s minority stake in the controversial Dakota Access pipeline, which could begin pumping crude oil by spring, and its mega-deal to buy Spectra Energy Corporation and create North America’s biggest energy infrastructure company.
Monaco also claimed Canada needs two additional oil and gas pipelines—including Enbridge’s proposed Line 3—despite widening analysis pointing to declining fossil investment and a pipeline capacity glut in the country’s immediate future.
