Canadian Watchdog Challenges Merger Of Rivals Secure & Tervita

Canada’s Competition Bureau is seeking to block Secure Energy Services’s proposed acquisition of Tervita Corporation to protect competition for customers of oil and gas waste services in Western Canada.

On June 29, 2021, the Bureau also filed an application with the Competition Tribunal for an order to prevent the companies from closing their proposed merger until the matter is heard by the Tribunal.

Secure and Tervita are the two largest suppliers, and in many areas, the only suppliers of oil and gas waste services in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) and vigorously compete with one another to win customers. The elimination of this rivalry through this proposed merger is likely to result in higher prices and a loss in the quality of service for customers.

Both companies operate facilities used to dispose of waste produced by oil and gas operations. These include industrial landfills, treatment recovery and disposal facilities (TRDs) and standalone water disposal wells. They also compete to provide other types of environmental services such as solids control, demolition & decommissioning, and equipment rentals.

The Bureau’s review concluded that the proposed merger is likely to result in a substantial lessening of competition with respect to services provided at waste disposal facilities in the WCSB. The merger is also likely to prevent competition for landfill services in Northeastern British Columbia, and to lessen competition for environmental services through Secure’s ability to charge its environmental services competitors higher prices.

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