 | |
| Industry | Pipeline transport |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1949 |
| Defunct | 2002 |
| Fate | Acquired by Duke Energy |
| Headquarters | Westcoast Transmission Building, 1333 West Georgia St, Vancouver, British Columbia |
The Westcoast Transmission Company Limited was a Canadian pipeline company founded in 1949 by entrepreneur Frank McMahon who saw an enormous opportunity to supply natural gas to the huge industrial and residential markets in the United States.
In 1949, through a special Act of the Parliament of Canada, he incorporated Westcoast Transmission Co. Ltd. whose business plan included the construction of a 650-mile gas pipeline from Taylor in north-eastern British Columbia to the United States. McMahon personally began lobbying the Canadian and American governments to remove their restrictions on the export and import of natural gas. After exhaustive efforts he succeeded and in 1955 construction began on the Westcoast Pipeline, Canada's first "big-inch" pipeline. Along with its gathering system, processing plants and compressor stations were completed in the fall of 1957. In 1964, Westcoast Transmission built another processing plant at Fort Nelson, British Columbia in support of an additional 250-mile line to the company's new discoveries in the Canadian Northwest. In 1974, Westcoast Tramsmission created Foothills Pipeline Ltd., a subsidiary company established to build and operate the Canadian portions of the Alaska Natural Gas Transportation System.
Westcoast sold the company's natural gas distribution subsidiary, Centra Gas Manitoba, to Manitoba Hydro in 1999. [1]
After McMahon's death in 1986, Westcoast Transmission Co. Ltd. was renamed Westcoast Energy Inc., and in 2002 Duke Energy of Charlotte, North Carolina, acquired the company in a deal worth US$3.5 billion. [2] The natural gas pipeline business was later spun off as part of Spectra Energy, which merged with Enbridge in 2017. [3]
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The Westcoast Pipeline, also known as the Westcoast Transmission System or the BC Pipeline, is a natural gas pipeline in British Columbia that brings natural gas from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin south to the province's heavily populated Lower Mainland. It connects to the Northwest Pipeline in the United States and east to TransCanada pipeline. Built in 1957 by Frank McMahon's Westcoast Transmission Co. Ltd., the 650-mile gas pipeline from Taylor in north-eastern British Columbia to the United States was Canada's first "big-inch" pipeline.
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Francis Murray Patrick McMahon was a Canadian oilman best known as the founder and first chairman of Westcoast Transmission Co. Ltd. whom the July 15, 1957, issue of Time magazine called "The man who did the most to open up northwest Canada's wilderness—and convince oilmen of its treasures."
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