TransCanada Pipelines of Calgary has agreed to sell its natural gas pipelines and gas marketing business in Mexico, as well as its interests in a natural gas liquids extraction facility in Venezuela.

The deals, announced this week by the Alberta energy giant, are worth an estimated $190 million US. GDF International S.A. (GDF), a wholly owned subsidiary of Gaz de France, has agreed to buy the Mexican operations.

In Venezuela, TCPL will sell its interests in Accroven SRL, to Williams International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Williams.

The Mexico deal is expected to be sealed in the first quarter of 2001 pending necessary approvals. Approval for the Venezuela sale is expected to be finalized in the next four to six weeks, the company said.

The deals are part of a continuing selloff of TCPL’s non-core assets, which since last December have amounted to about $3.4 billion in sales.

The company had previously announced it would be selling its non-core assets to focus on natural gas transmission, power and gas marketing in Canada and the northern regions of the United States.

“Today’s announcement brings us close to completing our divestiture program,” Doug Baldwin, president and chief executive officer of TransCanada Pipelines, said in a statement. “As we near the end of our divestiture of non-core businesses, the company will be reviewing the provision of discontinued operations taken last year to determine if any adjustment is required in the fourth quarter.”

The Mexican sale involves a variety of assets including:
* 67.5 per cent of Energia Myakan, a pipeline firm which owns and runs a 700-kilometre natural gas pipeline in Mexico.
* 100 per cent of pipeline company TransCanada del Bajio (TCB), which is building a 200-kilometre natural gas pipeline in Mexico.
* 50 per cent of TransNatural, a natural gas marketing company in Mexico.
* 100 per cent of TransCanada International (Mexico), a company which provides bundled energy services to industrial natural gas consumers.

The Venezuelan transaction involves the following assets:
* 49.25 per cent of Accroven SRL, a company that is developing gas liquids extraction, fractionalization and refrigeration facilities.
* 47.5 per cent of Accroserv SRL, a related operating company.

The company says other assets now in the process of being sold include its TransGas natural gas pipeline in Colombia, the GasPacifico pipeline from Argentina to Chile, the Paiton power plant in Indonesia, the Harmattan gas gathering and processing facility in Canada and other minor interests in Latin America.