At Gibson Energy’s 2018 investor day on Jan. 30 in Toronto, President and CEO Steve Spaulding said, “What you will see today is a dramatic transformation of our business. Gibson Energy will no longer be thought of as a trucking business. We will be a crude oil infrastructure business with high quality cash flow.”

The plan includes continually developing storage sites at Edmonton and Hardisty, while enhancing additional services in and around those core terminals, and a focus on crude oil basins in Canada and the US. Spaulding added, “There are assets in our portfolio that just don’t fit. These are good businesses, and really, a lot of great people, that don’t fit our forward strategy.”

Gibson sold its industrial propane business last year for $412 million and its US environmental services, including water hauling, is expected to be sold in this year’s first quarter. “Gibson Energy has really been known as a trucking company, in the past,” Spaulding said. “Exiting business lines is a tough decision, but we think, the right decision.”

Gibson laid out target closing dates for four major divestitures. The first, NGL (natural gas liquids) wholesale, will occur in the third quarter of 2018, while non-core US injective stations and truck transport is expected to be gone by Q4 of 2018. Canadian truck transportation will follow in mid-2019, along with non-core Canadian environmental services.

Spaulding concluded, “We’re talking about a dramatic change to the business. We will be an oil infrastructure business. We’re going to build in and around our core terminals in Canada, and develop a basin infrastructure strategy.”