Northern Border Partners completes acquisitions

April 6, 2001
Northern Border Partners, LP, Omaha, Neb., Friday announced it completed the acquisitions of Bear Paw Energy LLC and certain Canadian midstream assets for more than $400 million. Bear Paw Energy was bought from a consortium of investors, and the Canadian midstream assets from Dynegy Inc.


By the OGJ Online Staff


HOUSTON, Apr. 5�Northern Border Partners LP, Omaha, Neb., Friday announced it completed the acquisitions of Bear Paw Energy LLC and certain Canadian midstream assets for more than $400 million.

Bear Paw Energy was bought from a consortium of investors led by J.P. Morgan Partners (formerly Chase Capital Partners). The Canadian midstream assets were bought from Dynegy Inc.

Bear Paw Energy, which has extensive gathering and processing operations, will become part of Northern Border Partners' US midstream business. Bear Paw owns 600 miles of high and low-pressure gathering pipelines in the Powder River basin in Wyoming.

In the Williston basin in Montana, North Dakota, and Saskatchewan, Bear Paw owns more than 2,800 miles of gathering pipelines and four processing plants with 90 MMcfd of capacity.

The Canadian midstream assets are owned by a subsidiary entity, Border Midstream Services Ltd. The core assets included in this acquisition, all in Alberta, are the Mazeppa and Gladys plants -- sour gas processing plants with 87 MMcfd of combined capacity -- and a minority interest in the Gregg Lake/Obed Pipeline system, comprised of 85 miles of gathering lines with a capacity of 150 MMcfd.

Bill Cordes, chairman and CEO of Northern Border Partners, said, �With gathering and processing assets in the two most active production areas of North America, these acquisitions provide a solid growth platform. We will rapidly integrate our new assets with our existing midstream business.�

Northern Border Partners owns a 70% general partner interest in Northern Border Pipeline Co., a 1,214-mile pipeline system that transports gas from the Montana-Saskatchewan border to markets in the midwestern US.

The partnership also has gathering systems and processing plants in the Powder River, Wind River, and Williston basins in the US, owns and operates processing plants and gathering pipelines in Alberta, and transports coal-water slurry via a pipeline in the Southwestern US.