Sable Island gas pipeline project approved

A Canadian Joint Review Panel (JRP) has approved plans for development of natural gas fields near Sable Island off eastern Canada and a related pipeline project to U.S. and Canadian markets.

The panel gave the green light to the Sable Offshore Energy Project (SOEP) and the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline (MNE), which would move gas via Canada's Atlantic provinces to New England markets (OGJ, Oct. 27, 1997, p. 30).

Ken Miller, chairman of the SOEP management committee and vice-president, frontier, for Mobil Oil Canada Ltd., said the approval is a significant step forward for the $2 billion (Canadian) project.

Miller said the panel has completed a complex review of the technical, environmental, and socioeconomic aspects of the project and decided there would be no significant adverse effects. He said the panel essentially endorsed the SOEP plan and recommended that the regulatory approvals necessary should proceed without delay.

The JRP report will now go to various provincial and regulatory bodies for approval.

Miller said there are still hurdles but the JRP approval provides a comprehensive framework to work through the issues. He said SOEP is very optimistic that final regulatory approvals will be issued in November and owners of the project will be able to make a decision to proceed this year.

Hearings by the JRP ended in July.

Project details, rivals

The project would develop six natural gas fields in the Sable Island area off Nova Scotia with reserves of more than 3 tcf. The MNE line would move gas from Sable Island to New England markets. The line is backed by Mobil Oil Canada Ltd., Westcoast Energy Inc., and PanEnergy Corp. The $1.2 billion line would traverse Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and connect with the Portland Natural Gas Transmission system at a border point at East Hereford, Que., to deliver gas to New England and Boston.

The rival $1.8 billion TransQuebec and Maritimes (TQM) line also proposes to deliver gas to New England but in addition would deliver gas to Quebec markets. It is backed by Gaz Metropolitain Inc., TransCanada PipeLines Ltd., and IPL Energy Inc.

North Atlantic Pipeline Inc., another group, filed a bid with Canada's National Energy Board Oct. 24 to build a subsea pipeline to connect gas from both Sable Island and the Grand Banks off Newfoundland to Canadian and New England markets.

North Atlantic also filed a motion that the evidentiary portion of the JPR hearing of the Sable gas project be reopened to allow for presentation of its application as an alternative project and that the same panel be empowered to hear its application.

The NEB said it will announce at a later date the process to be used for this application.