TransCanada Corp.'s decision earlier this month to pull the plug on its $15.7-billion Energy East Pipeline will likely dampen the appetite for Canadian energy deals because it remains too difficult to get the country's landlocked oil abroad, say lawyers who work in the field.
Alberta oil producers still have no pipeline to move their product to the B.C. coast for export to energy-hungry countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
The planned Energy East Pipeline would have carried 1.1 billion barrels of oil a day in the other direction: 4,500 kilometres from Alberta to Quebec and New Brunswick, to be refined and shipped across the Atlantic to Europe. And observers predict the pipeline's cancellation will cost Canada foreign investment.
Lexpert contributor Sandra Rubin reports at www.lexpert.ca.
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