TRP pushes Keystone ahead

Article Excerpt

TRANSCANADA CORP. $61.58 (Toronto symbol TRP; Shares outstanding: 800.3 million; Market cap: $53.0 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Divd. yield: 3.7%; www.transcanada.com) has now resubmitted its application for the Keystone XL pipeline project after President Donald Trump offered his conditional approval. That pipeline would pump crude from Alberta’s oil sands to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Oil sands projects typically last 50 years, as opposed to conventional oil wells that last an average of 10 years. Trump’s approval was the biggest obstacle for the project. TransCanada has already completed most of the regulatory and engineering work, although it needs Nebraska to approve the pipeline and must resolve outstanding legal issues with some landowners in the state. It must also negotiate contracts with prospective clients for the pipeline such as Suncor. TransCanada spent $4.3 billion on Keystone XL, but had to write off $2.9 billion of those costs after the Obama administration blocked the plan. Even so, the company will likely recoup most of…