Pembina's Alliance Pipeline Reaches 10-Year Toll Settlement With Shippers, Cutting Long-Term Firm Tolls By 14% And Returning $95M In Liabilities; Canada Energy Regulator Approval Sought By Sept. 15

Author: Benzinga Newsdesk | July 24, 2025 04:06pm

All financial figures are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted.

Pembina Pipeline Corporation ("Pembina") (TSX:PPL, NYSE:PBA) announced today that Alliance Pipeline Limited Partnership ("Alliance") has reached a negotiated settlement (the "Settlement") with shippers and interested parties (the "Shipper Committee") on the Canadian portion of the Alliance Pipeline and filed an application with the Canada Energy Regulator (the "CER") seeking approval of the Settlement. Separately, Alliance announced it is soliciting non-binding expressions of interest for a new regional short-haul transportation service.

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"We are pleased after many months of complex, yet productive, discussions to have reached a negotiated solution with the Shipper Committee, consisting of over 30 members," said Scott Burrows, Pembina's President and Chief Executive Officer. "The negotiated tolls are competitive and will provide toll certainty to Shippers. The Settlement is fair and equitable to Alliance and all Shippers. We now look forward to a timely response from the CER."

In November 2024, the CER ordered Alliance to submit for approval a detailed toll application justifying why its current tolling methodology remained compliant with the Canadian Energy Regulator Act, or a new tolling methodology application. Likewise, the CER ordered that the current tolls be deemed interim tolls until resolution of the above. Following the CER order, Alliance worked collaboratively with the Shipper Committee towards a negotiated settlement.

Highlights of the Settlement include:

• A 10-year term, effective November 1, 2025 - October 31, 2035.
• A revised term-differentiated toll schedule that includes the establishment of a new 10-year toll and a reduction to the existing 1-year, 3-year and 5-year tolls ("New Tolls"). The New Tolls are expected to reduce existing long-term firm tolls by an average of 14 percent on a volume weighted average basis.
• All existing long-term firm service contracts will incorporate the New Tolls, and the New Tolls will remain fixed for the 10-year period effective November 1, 2025.
• The Settlement offers existing long-term firm shippers a one-time term extension option, enabling shippers to take advantage of the new term-differentiated tolls, effective November 1, 2025. Alliance anticipates a significant portion of contracted volumes to take advantage of the 10-year toll, thereby extending the weighted average term of Alliance's contractual profile.
• Revenue from biddable transportation service (seasonal and interruptible) for volumes above long-term firm capacity of 1.325 billion cubic feet per day, will be shared 50/50 between Alliance and firm and seasonal shippers, thus aligning the interests of Alliance and its shippers and maintaining Alliance's ability to fairly and equitably allocate short-term capacity when available and demanded by the market.
• The Settlement has no retroactive impact on the interim tolls in effect since November 2024. The interim tolls will be made final and apply until October 31, 2025.
• Alliance will remain under an 'at-risk' commercial model where returns and Alliance's ability to recover operating costs are squarely driven by the customer demand for its service and Alliance's ability to efficiently provide such service and manage costs.
• Alliance will return approximately $95 million, currently held as an existing liability on Alliance's balance sheet, associated with eligible recoverable costs ("Recoverable Cost Variance"). The economic impact to Alliance of the return of this balance is limited to foregone carrying charges, which previously accrued at 8.75 percent. Alliance's ability to recover the same limited categories of cost in the future via surcharges under the Settlement is unchanged.

The Shipper Committee supported the Settlement through a vote on July 23, 2025. The Settlement is contingent on approval by the CER. Alliance has filed an application with the CER requesting approval of the Settlement by September 15, 2025. The full application is available for viewing on the CER Website.

Pembina expects the financial impact to Alliance from the Settlement over the next 10 years will be an approximately $50 million per year reduction in long-term firm service revenue, plus the impact of the new revenue sharing provision. The impact of the revenue sharing provision is subject to biddable transportation service tolls, which will depend primarily on future commodity prices. The estimated impact of the revenue sharing provision assuming an AECO-Chicago natural gas spread of C$1.50 per thousand cubic feet ("mcf") is approximately $40 million. The estimated impact of every incremental C$0.25/mcf change is approximately $10 million. Applying the terms of the Settlement to Alliance's financial results over the historical five-year period from 2020 to 2024, the average annual impact of the Settlement, including the reduction in long-term firm service revenue and the impact of the new revenue sharing provision, would have been approximately $95 million.

Alliance has a proven track record of high reliability and high utilization and is unique in its ability to transport liquids-rich, Canadian-produced natural gas, while providing a cross-border conduit to high demand U.S. markets. Pembina looks forward to continuing to deliver exceptional customer service and maximizing the value of this critical and highly differentiated North American energy infrastructure asset.

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