Avista Canada Purchases A Competitor

A Washington Water Power Co. natural gas marketing subsidiary in Canada has purchased a competitor in a move that could significantly increase the scope of the company’s activities north of the U.S. border.

Coast Pacific Management Inc. will be folded into Avista Energy Canada Ltd. Both companies are based in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Terms of the transaction with privately owned Coast Pacific were not disclosed.

The company, formed in 1986, manages and transports gas to 70 large- and mid-sized industrial customers in the province.

In interior British Columbia, the company serves 40 percent of the large industrial customers.

Robert Green, one of the principals in Coast Pacific, said timber and mining companies are typical company customers.

The combined companies, he said, will be able to compete more effectively in a market dominated by four or five big players.

“We are delighted to be associated with Avista,” Green said, noting that the response has also been positive among customers, many of whom are familiar with the company.

WWP Chairman Tom Matthews said the deal will expand Avista’s capabilities on both sides of the border. He specifically mentioned power generation projects, which the company said last week it will pursue in tandem with Cogentrix Energy Inc.

The announcement mentions the potential to sell electricity in the province. But Green said power sales will depend on some resolution to the debate over deregulation of markets that is taking place in British Columbia, as it is in Washington.