Keystone XL company saw $1.2B in profits in Q4 2020

This past Wednesday, TC Energy released their quarterly report for their final quarter of 2020. That report saw that they posted a profit of $1.232 billion.

TC Energy, formerly known as TransCanada, is the owner of the Keystone XL pipeline, which was being built between Hardisty, Alberta, and Steele City, Nebraska. Once completed, it would’ve shipped around 500,000 barrels of oil a day for 20 years.

In March 2020, the Alberta government announced that it was buying $1.5 billion in equity shares from TC Energy.

The $1.232 billion in net income they posted in their 4th quarter is higher than the $1.225 billion from the 4th quarter of 2019. Plus, this is on top of profits in the previous 3 quarters, each totalling over $1 billion.

In the 1st quarter of last year, the company saw $1.285 in net income, up from $1.146 billion during Q1 2019. They saw $1.384 billion in profits in the second quarter ($1.223 billion in 2019), and $1.012 billion in the third quarter ($0.839 billion in 2019).

Combined, TC Energy saw profits of $4.913 billion in 2020. That’s nearly half a billion more than the $4.433 billion they posted in 2019.

Which is kind of weird given that revenue was actually lower in 2020 than it was in 2019. Last year, the company brought in $12.999 billion in revenue. In comparison, 2019 saw them bring in $13.255 billion.

With nearly $5 billion in profits last year, they must have been in desparate need of that extra $1.5 billion stock purchase from the UCP government.

Oh, and remember when the UCP government reduced the corporate income tax from 10% to 8% last year? Here’s how it impacted TC Energy’s bottom line:

On December 9, 2020, the Government of Alberta enacted the reduction of the corporate income tax rate to 8% effective July 1, 2020. This change did not have a material impact on our 2020 consolidated financial statements.

And the tax cuts in 2019? Well, it put $35 million back into the pockets of the company. But they paid $754 million in income tax in 2019. So, they basically ended up paying 4.4% less in income tax than they had planned on.

Originally published at kimsiever.ca on 19 February 2021.