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Enbridge Inc., Canada’s largest pipeline company, reported on Wednesday a first-quarter loss on slumping crude prices.

The net loss was $383 million, or 46 cents a share, compared with profit of $390 million, or 47 cents, a year earlier, the Calgary-based company said in a statement on Marketwired Wednesday. Excluding one-time items, per-share profit missed by 3 cents the 59-cent average of 13 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

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Enbridge shipped more crude from Alberta’s oil sands as falling prices slowed the industry’s expansion and curtailed some projects. The pipeline operator plans to spend $44 billion through 2018, including new natural gas lines and power plants, to capture more of the market.

The price for West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, averaged US$48.57 in the quarter, down 51 per cent from a year earlier. Crude closed at US$61.83 a barrel in New York Tuesday, the first time it traded above US$60 this year.

Canadian crude producers including Suncor Energy Inc., Imperial Oil Ltd. and Cenovus Energy Inc. reported declining profit — or losses — in the first quarter.

Bloomberg.com