Canadian-based refinery giant Irving Oil, which has worked for three years to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in New Brunswick, said Friday it had received regulatory approval for its Multi-Purpose Pier Project.

Irving Oil submitted an environmental impact statement in March to build a C$500 million LNG plant at its existing Canaport deepwater terminal, which is located about 65 miles from the U.S. border. Canaport, which has been in operation since 1970, covers 1,802 acres, has a water depth of 128 feet at low tide and is connected by pipelines to the Irving Oil Refinery five miles away.

The current plans call for three 160,000 cubic meter LNG tanks and a throughput capacity of 1 Bcf/d. The company anticipates the receiving terminal to be operational in 2007.

“My grandfather had the foresight to build our refinery at this location in the late 1950’s when others could not see the potential in Saint John’s deep water, proximity to the northeastern U.S., and the capability of its people,” said Kenneth Irving. “Today our refinery is recognized as being among North America’s best. In 1970, my father completed building North America’s first deepwater terminal before the industry appreciated the potential in evolving ship sizes. Today, we have one of the most modern and well-maintained deepwater facilities, which is integrated with our world-scale refinery.”

Founded in 1924, Irving is a privately owned energy processing, transporting and marketing company that is predominantly an export facility. It processes up to 250,000 bbl/d at the Irving Refinery in Saint John’s, and is Canada’s largest refinery. In addition to being linked to the Irving Refinery by pipelines, Irving Canaport is also connected to the Bayside and Coleson Cove Power Plants by pipelines. The total capacity of these two power plants is 1,325 MW.

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