TransCanada Corp. and ConocoPhillips said Wednesday they will suspend further work on their planned Fairwinds liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Harpswell, ME, after the town residents earlier this week voted not to lease the former U.S. Navy Fuel Depot site to build terminal and regasification facilities.

This is “the end of the project as we know it, but we will regroup” and consider siting the LNG plant somewhere else in Maine, said Peter Micciche, a spokesman for the Fairwinds project. He noted that prior to choosing Harpswell, Fairwinds partners TransCanada and ConocoPhillips examined as many as 37 sites in Maine.

“We’ll be revisiting them [the sites],” said ConocoPhillips spokeswoman Linsi Crain. She could not say which ones are being considered as top candidates to relocate the project.

“We’re not giving up on LNG to the Northeast.” Crain noted the companies had done only “very preliminary” work on the Fairwinds project, including a project description and some environmental analysis.

The Fairwinds partnership sought to lease 68 acres of the Navy Fuel Depot from Harpswell for an initial 30-year term, with five-year lease renewals for an additional 20 years. The town is located 15 miles northwest of Portland, ME.

The $350 million project included an import terminal and associated facilities that would have provide 500 MMcf/d of throughput to Maine and the larger New England natural gas market, as well as a 24-to-30 inch diameter pipeline to carry gas from the proposed terminal to the region’s existing pipeline infrastructure.

TransCanada and ConocoPhillips had hoped to begin construction by 2006, with the facility to be operational by 2009.

Fairwinds is not the first LNG project to run into intense local opposition. Cheniere Energy and ExxonMobil have “stepped back” from their LNG projects in the Mobile, AL, area, and the Weaver’s Cove LNG project in Fall River, MA, has come under fire from residents who are opposed to tankers being off loaded near their community.

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