TransCanada: Millennium pipeline may be delayed

TransCanada PipeLines Ltd., Calgary, says completion of the proposed $1.35 billion (Can.) Millennium pipeline could be delayed for more than a year due to regulatory setbacks. The proposed 551-mile pipeline would carry gas from Dawn, Ont. to Westchester County, NY.

July 10, 2000

CALGARY�TransCanada PipeLines Ltd., Calgary, says completion of the proposed $1.35 billion (Can.) Millennium pipeline could be delayed for more than a year due to regulatory setbacks. The proposed 551-mile pipeline would carry gas from Dawn, Ont., to Westchester County, NY.

The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rejected an application to build the pipeline in May. As a result, TransCanada has now asked Canadian regulators to put on hold hearings on the Canadian part of the line.

Start-up of the line has now been postponed to a tentative date of November 2001. It was originally scheduled to start November 1999.

Backers TransCanada and St. Clair Pipelines Ltd. would together build the 109-mile Canadian segment. Part of the line would run under Lake Erie.

The US segment of the line would be built by TransCanada; Westcoast Energy Inc., Vancouver, BC; Columbia Energy Group, Herndon, Va.; and MCN Energy Group Inc., Detroit, Mich.

The Millennium line would have 700 MMcfd of capacity to transport Canadian gas to markets in the US Northeast.