The Canaport LNG project in Saint John’s, NB, continues to move forward with an announcement Wednesday that project sponsors Repsol YPF and Irving Oil awarded the onshore and offshore engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contracts and issued the final notice to proceed with construction.

The latest steps come only a day after Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline filed plans for a mainline expansion and Emera Inc. announced plans to fund a new $350 million pipeline lateral to the proposed terminal (see Daily GPI, May 17).

Canaport is poised to be the first new liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal on the East Coast of North America in decades. Repsol and Irving Oil said they also have completed agreements to transport natural gas from the terminal to markets in Canada and the Northeast via Emera’s proposed Brunswick Pipeline and the Maritimes expansion.

The EPC contract for the onshore facilities and jetty topsides at the LNG terminal was awarded to SNC-CENMC GP, a partnership between SNC-Lavalin Inc., Canada’s largest engineering and construction firm, and Saipem SpA of Milan, Italy. Kiewit-Weeks-Sandwell Partnership, a consortium of Saint John’s-based Peter Kiewit Sons Co., New Jersey-based Weeks Marine, and Vancouver-based Sandwell Engineering were awarded the EPC contract for the terminal’s offshore facilities, including the receiving pier.

“With today’s announcements, we take two big steps towards increasing the security of energy supply to the Northeastern region of North America and solidifying the New Brunswick energy hub,” said Kenneth Irving of Irving Oil.

Site preparation, blasting and leveling construction work was completed earlier this spring at the Canaport site. The terminal is scheduled to begin operations in late 2008. At commissioning, the terminal will have a send-out capacity of 1 Bcf/d (10 Bcm/year), with a peak capacity of 1.2 Bcf/d. It will be expandable to 2 Bcf/d when the market is ready for additional natural gas supplies.

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