Enbridge To Resume Garden Banks Gas Operations In February

Pipeline operator Enbridge Inc. (NYSE:ENB) recently announced that it is planning to restart operations at its Garden Banks gas pipeline in early February. The 1 billion cubic foot per day (Bcf/d) pipeline will begin operations for some producers.

The pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico was shut down following a fire outbreak on Nov 8, 2017. The incident resulted in stalling of operations on most of the platforms in the region, including Enchilada and Salsa platforms, operated by Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSa) plc RDS.A and the Baldpate and Conger filed platforms, operated by Hess Corporation (NYSE:HES) . Enbridge is separating its pipeline from the damaged platform Enchilada and expects to finish the task by the coming month. Production at the site was disrupted due to the unavailability of pipeline. Both Shell and Hess are yet to provide dates for restarting operations at the site.

The Garden Banks pipeline connects Garden Banks block 128 to South Marsh Island block 76 and then interconnects with four existing interstate pipelines, from where it transports gas onshore.

Per the forecasts of the Energy Information Administration, oil production level in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to be flat in 2018 year over year. From 2019 onward, production in the region is expected to rise as seven new projects will come online.

About Enbridge

Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta in Canada, Enbridge is a leading energy infrastructure company. One of its businesses is the transportation of energy through the most extensive and advanced crude and liquids pipeline system that spreads across 17,511 miles globally. Through the Mainline and Express pipelines, the company transports 2.8 million barrels of crude every day, which accounts for almost 68% of the Canadian crude oil production that is transported to the United States.

We appreciate Enbridge raising its quarterly dividend every year. The new dividend of 67.1 Canadian cents represents a sequential increase of 10%, will likely be paid on Mar 1, 2018, to stockholders of record as of Feb 15, 2018.

However, in the recent times, the company’s debt load has increased significantly. Importantly, during the first nine months of 2017, long-term debt rose more than 77% while cash balance declined 59%, reflecting weak financials.

In addition, Enbridge has lost 8.2% in the last year against 1.5% gain of its industry.

Zacks Rank and Stocks to Consider

Enbridge Energy carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

A better-ranked stock in the oil and energy sector is Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE:COG) , which sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Houston, TX -based Cabot is an independent energy company. Its sales for the fourth quarter of 2017 are expected to grow 39% year over year. Earnings for 2017 are expected to be up 357.1%.

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