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Enbridge Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Benzinga·11/06/2026 14:19:32
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Enbridge (TSX:ENB) reported third-quarter financial results on Friday. The transcript from the company’s third-quarter earnings call has been provided below.

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View the webcast at https://events.q4inc.com/attendee/592815862

Summary

Enbridge Inc. reported strong operational and financial performance in Q3 2026 and is on track to meet financial guidance for the 21st consecutive year.

Key strategic moves included closing a partnership with KKR and Apollo, acquiring Tallgrass’s crude transportation business and Salt Creek Midstream’s assets, and completing a $3 billion equity offering.

The company announced the Long Lake expansion in the oil sands, along with several gas transmission projects, including Aspen Point and Tennessee Ridgeline, entering service.

CEO Greg Ebel announced his retirement at year-end, with Michele Harradence appointed as the next CEO, highlighting successful internal succession planning.

The macro energy environment is seen as constructive, with growing demand for energy infrastructure driven by population growth and electrification.

The future outlook includes significant growth opportunities in all business segments, particularly in liquids and gas transmission, with expansions planned in response to increasing demand.

Full Transcript

Marlon Samuel (Vice President, Investor Relations)

Good morning and welcome to the Enbridge Inc. third quarter 2026 conference call. My name is Marlon Samuel and I’m the Vice President of Investor Relations. Joining me this morning are Greg Ebel, President and CEO; Pat Murray, EVP and Chief Financial Officer; and the heads of each of our business units: Colin Gruending, Liquids Pipelines; Matthew Akman, Gas Transmission; Michele Harradence, Gas Distribution and Storage; and Alan Capps, Renewable Power.

At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation we will conduct a question-and-answer session for the investment community. Please note this conference call is being recorded as per usual. This call is being webcast and I encourage those listening to follow along with the supporting slides. We will try to keep the call to roughly one hour and in order to answer as many questions as possible, we’ll be limiting questions to one plus a single follow-up if necessary.

We will be prioritizing questions from the investment community so if you are a member of the media, please direct your inquiries to our communications team. We’ll be happy to respond. As always, our Investor Relations teams will be available after the call for any follow-up questions. On to slide 2 where I will remind you that we will be referring to forward-looking information on today’s presentation and Q&A. By its nature, this information contains forecast assumptions and expectations about future outcomes which are subject to the risks and uncertainties outlined here and discussed more fully in our public disclosure filings. We will also be referring to non-GAAP measures summarized below.

With that I will turn it over to Greg Ebel.

Gregory Ebel (Chief Executive Officer)

Well, thank you very much, Marlon, and good morning everyone. We appreciate you joining us today. We delivered another quarter of strong operational and financial performance, positioning us to achieve our 2026 financial guidance for the 21st consecutive year. During the quarter we made a number of important strategic announcements that continue to strengthen our long-term growth outlook. Our announcements also included my intent to retire at year end and Michelle’s appointment as the next CEO of Enbridge.

Now looking at the quarter, utilization remains strong across all four of our businesses, reflecting the essential nature of the diverse energy infrastructure we operate. We placed two projects into service in our gas transmission business, Aspen Point, B.C. and Tennessee Ridgeline, and we also filed agreement in the Enbridge Gas Ohio rate case. This quarter we closed the previously announced West Coast partnership with KKR and Apollo, providing financial flexibility to fund our organic growth opportunities.

We also announced the acquisition of Tallgrass’s crude transportation business and acquired Salt Creek Midstream’s crude gathering assets, both of which expand our liquids pipeline footprint across some of North America’s most attractive producing regions. To support those strategic transactions, we completed a $3 billion common equity offering, and in Liquids Pipelines, we sanctioned the Long Lake expansion with our regional oil sands business, supporting CNOOC’s growing operations.

In our Gas Distribution business, we announced the acquisition of natural gas supply assets that will increase the amount of affordable gas that we can provide for our Enbridge Gas Utah customers. Taken together, these transactions demonstrate our disciplined and versatile approach to capital allocation, allowing us to capitalize on opportunities that align with our strategy. Now, before discussing the business updates, let me offer a few comments about my upcoming retirement. Four years ago, when I accepted the Board’s invitation to take on the Enbridge CEO position, I was focused on accomplishing four things in relatively short order. First of all, improving our customer focus and experience. Second, improving the investor experience. Third, I wanted to expand our footprint in both the Canadian and U.S. markets and finally ensure that in three to four years the Board would have a great CEO successor from within the company.

As a management team and with my Board colleagues, we got working on all those priorities immediately. Today our customers have a growing set of offerings across all of our businesses. They have shown their great support for us by backstopping virtually all of our $38 billion in growth backlog. Investors have seen good returns via both growing dividends and share appreciation, and today our geographic footprint in Canada and the U.S. is bigger than it’s ever been.

Our assets continue to benefit and grow from the all-of-the-above energy infrastructure buildout that we believed was getting underway and today still has a long runway ahead. And last but not least, after a multi-year succession planning effort with the Board, I’m thrilled that we have an excellent leader in Michele Harradence to lead and advance Enbridge into its next growth chapter. Michelle has played a critical role in leading our Gas Distribution and Storage business in recent years and brings extensive operational, commercial, and leadership experience.

Michelle is set to take on the CEO role January 1st and I have great confidence in her, the leadership team, and our great women and men in the field delivering safely and reliably 24/7 as they continue building on the strong foundation we have established. I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplished together and thank them for their incredibly hard work and support. This will be my last earnings call. My first was with Duke Energy more than 20 years ago, and some of you were investors and analysts then, and so I appreciate all the support and counsel over the years.

Thanks to you all. Now as we head towards the end of the year and into 2027, the macro backdrop for the energy environment remains very constructive, with demand for reliable and affordable energy continuing to grow across North America and globally. Population growth, manufacturing investment, electrification, and rapidly rising power demand are creating new requirements for energy infrastructure. At the same time, North America’s resources are increasingly important to global energy security, thus supporting growing export demand for both oil and LNG.

Taking a look at the map, we see a number of regions in the continent that are expecting significant energy demand and supply growth into the next decade, and all four of our businesses are currently capitalizing on that opportunity. In Liquids, we continue to anticipate significant growth in Canada and expect more certainty on that growth in the near future as governments and industry progress policy alignment. In the spring of 2024, we expressed a strong view that supply growth out of Western Canada would reach 1 million barrels by 2035. Not many shared our view at that time, but today that prediction is probably too low.

This growth will require expansions of the Alberta regional oil sands business, increased diluent supply, support for carbon sequestration and transportation, and increased capacity out of the basin, all areas in which we are an industry leader currently and see numerous future opportunities. In Gas Transmission, we see significant demand all over North America, including in British Columbia, the U.S. Northeast and the U.S. Southeast, as well as along the Gulf Coast where our Texas Eastern and Valley Crossing assets are strategically located. All of our utility franchises are also seeing tailwinds from population growth and power demand. In fact, we’re seeing more opportunities in the U.S. than when we initially decided to buy the gas utility assets in 2023.

And lastly, renewables will remain an important part of the generation mix needed to meet North America’s growing power demand. Our all-of-the-above approach to energy investment allows us to win in multiple ways regardless of the commodity type, color of the electron, or frankly the ever-changing makeup of governments. We deliver multiple sources of reliable and affordable energy and that works for our customers and investors in all conditions. During the quarter we announced two accretive and strategic liquids acquisitions that further strengthen our North American crude oil franchise. The acquisition of Tallgrass’s crude oil business, which includes the Pony Express Pipeline and Powder River Gateway system, will build on our existing Rockies footprint and adds new connectivity to the DJ and Powder River basins. Importantly, the acquisition will add access to growing supply regions while creating additional customer optionality across our broader liquids network over time.

We also announced the acquisition of Salt Creek Midstream’s crude gathering assets in the core of the Delaware Basin. This transaction strengthens our Permian position and extends our wellhead-to-water strategy, adding high-quality gathering infrastructure upstream of the Gray Oak Pipeline and our Ingleside export terminal. Together these acquisitions build upon our existing network advantages and expand our ability to provide integrated solutions across North America’s most important crude oil corridors.

As previously mentioned, this quarter we sanctioned the Long Lake expansion, supporting CNOOC’s growing operations in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, adding a new lateral pipeline and storage tank while also expanding multiple lines in our regional oil sands system. The project is expected to cost $200 million and enter service in 2028. We also closed a successful open season on Flanagan South, which is the downstream component of the resequenced MLO2 project.

This just further highlights our demand-pull pipelines and our ability to modularly expand our system based on our customers’ current and long-term needs. As we indicated at our last quarterly earnings call, we see a number of opportunities across our liquids footprint and these two projects are evidence of that. We’re encouraged by the increasingly constructive industry outlook and are well positioned to support our customers with our leading liquids pipeline network regardless of evolving market conditions or public sentiment for oil.

Our Mainline system has continued to operate at or near capacity. Volumes have steadily increased over the years and we are confident as supply grows out of the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, so too will our capacity to support our customers. The Mainline’s many advantages—like reliability and safety, market access to refining capacity, and established rate-making model—continue to reinforce the long-term value proposition of the franchise to our customers and investors alike.

Turning to Gas Transmission, fundamentals remain exceptionally strong across the continent. The portfolio remains robust with a number of high-quality opportunities supporting growing LNG and power generation demand. Starting in Canada, Aspen Point entered service under budget and ahead of schedule, providing additional transportation capacity to support regional demand growth and LNG exports on the West Coast. With the current West Coast toll settlement expiring at year end, negotiations are well advanced with an agreement and CER approval expected to be realized in early 2027.

We also closed the previously announced $2.7 billion joint venture with KKR and Apollo, providing us with financial flexibility as we advance our organic project backlog. We’re also advancing a number of opportunities across Texas Eastern after seeing strong customer demand on various paths for incremental capacity. Within our Permian joint venture, the Blackcomb Pipeline has now entered service, providing up to 2.5 Bcf per day of capacity out of the basin, and the 2.6 Bcf per day Bay Runner Pipeline has achieved mechanical completion, ready to move gas to the Rio Grande LNG facility.

In the U.S. Northeast, we continue to progress the previously sanctioned Algonquin Enhancement Project and the team is working hard on commercial negotiations with customers on Project Beacon, a further expansion of the Algonquin system. We appreciate the strong support from the state governments like Massachusetts to quickly achieve federal approval of such projects. More generally, we are having a number of conversations with power and utility customers in both the U.S. Northeast and Midwest, and the opportunities in the region remain robust.

Despite some construction challenges on the Tennessee Ridgeline project, it entered service on time on November 1, ready to provide natural gas to our customers under long-term take-or-pay agreements. Further south, Florida continues to be a growing market for gas driven by power demand, population growth, and industrialization, and we’re looking at opportunities through our interest in the Sabal Trail pipeline and our connected storage assets along the Gulf Coast.

It’s worth remembering that across the Gas Transmission business we have almost 90 Bcf of natural gas storage projects already sanctioned, positioning us to support the growing power demand and LNG opportunities on both sides of the border. Stepping back, these projects are part of a much broader opportunity set across the franchise. We see a growing set of near-term opportunities driven by demand for LNG, power generation, and utility load growth.

Our extensive existing network positions us well to capture that growth through capital-efficient expansions of our existing infrastructure. As we’ve said before, natural gas remains one of the most attractive areas of growth across North America’s energy systems, and Enbridge is uniquely positioned to benefit from that trend. Turning to GDS, today we’re announcing an agreement to acquire the gas assets of Laramie Energy, expanding gas supply supporting Enbridge Gas Utah. The transaction leverages our existing successful Wexpro business model to provide our utility customers with a stable cost-of-service source of natural gas, helping improve affordability and moderate commodity price volatility while providing us a utility return without taking on commodity exposure. The transaction will close following regulatory approval, which we expect to receive later this month.

We’ve also reached a settlement in the Enbridge Gas Wyoming rate case, with rates expected to be effective in early 2027. In Ohio, we made meaningful progress on the rate case that was filed last year. Settlement was filed for approval to.

Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company’s SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants’ and analysts’ statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.