Progress mixed for two E. Canada projects

Two major development projects off eastern Canada report mixed results in efforts to advance.

A joint Ottawa-Newfoundland environmental assessment panel has given conditional approval to the proposed Terra Nova oil field development on the Grand Banks offshore Newfoundland.

Meantime, developers of the Sable Island natural gas project off Nova Scotia are concerned by a delay in the report of a public review panel.

Terra Nova update

The joint panel recommendations for Terra Nova include:

Requiring foreign suppliers to set up manufacturing and assembly facilities in Newfoundland.
That reinjection technology be incorporated in the design of a floating production system to dispose of drill cuttings and waste water.
Improvements should continue to be made in weather forecasting and iceberg tracking.
A zero tolerance policy on oil spills.
A coastal management plan be created to deal with a potential oil spill during shipment from production site to shore facilities.

Petro-Canada Ltd., Calgary, major partner in the development, said more time is needed to study the report before responding.

The $2 billion (Canadian) project is located about 217 miles southeast of St. John's, Newf.

A final decision on approval will be made by the Ottawa and Newfoundland governments with input from the Canada-Newfoundland Offshore Petroleum Board. A board member said a decision could be made within 2-3 months.

Sable Island

The panel reviewing the Sable Island project won't release its report until mid-October, about 2 months later than initially expected.

A spokesman for the $3.5 billion Sable Offshore Energy Project said it will have to review the effect of the delay on the sponsors' plans.

He said the group, led by Mobil Oil Canada Ltd., Calgary, will review its financial and commercial commitments to the project in the next few weeks.

Panel spokesman Edward Sampson said the panel report will deal only with the application before it from the Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline Ltd. Partnership (MNE) gas pipeline.

The field development project involves three competing pipeline proposals to move gas from Sable to markets in Canada and the U.S. Northeast.

MNE is the only pipeline that has made a formal submission to the panel for approval. The competing projects backed by TQM Pipeline and Tatham Offshore Inc., Houston, with another proposal, appeared at the panel hearings as intervenors.

TransMaritime

Meanwhile, TransMaritime Gas Transmission Ltd. (TMGT) filed an application with Canada's National Energy Board for a $629 million gas pipeline.

The TMGT project would traverse Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to connect with TQM near the Quebec border. TQM would link with the TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. system. TransCanada is a partner in the TQM project.

The hearings were complicated by a dispute between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick over tolls.

Also, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien has said he favors the TQM proposal, which would go through the province of Quebec en route to New England markets. MNE would bypass Quebec. TQM has asked the panel to delay any decision until it has finalized shipping details.