New gas pipeline completed in Maine.

The new natural gas pipeline extending from the Canaport LNG terminal near Saint John to the New Brunswick/Maine border is expected to be completed later this month. The 30-inch diameter pipeline connects with the Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline on the St. Croix River at the border in Baileyville.

Susan Harris, community relations manager for Brunswick Pipeline, says that as of January 15 two sections of the 145-kilometre pipeline have been approved by the National Energy Board for gas transmission and three more need approval. The Canaport LNG terminal near Saint John is expected to receive its first liquefied natural gas shipment in March or April of this year. The Canaport facility, being developed by a partnership of Irving Oil Ltd. and Repsol YPF, will have an initial send-out capacity of one billion cubic feet of regasified LNG per day. Repsol YPF, an international oil and gas company based in Spain, expects to supply LNG to Canaport from its Trinidad and Tobago supplies and eventually also from Algeria.

The natural gas that will be delivered to the Canaport terminal will supply markets in the northeastern U.S. and Canada. Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline recently added compressors on the U.S. side to double that pipeline's capacity in order to handle the natural gas from the Canaport LNG terminal.

Harris says that no laterals to supply gas to users along the Brunswick Pipeline are planned at this time, but Emera Inc., the Nova Scotia-based energy company that owns the pipeline, will consider any applications for laterals. The applications would be made either by Enbridge Gas New Brunswick, which has the franchise to supply natural gas to residential customers in the province, or industrial users. At present, residential demands are being met through the Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline.