NEB denies Maritimes and Northeast application for new pipeline service and toll

Pipeline construction materials are shown in this file photo. (Grand Forks Herald / Eric Hylden)

CALGARY -- The National Energy Board has denied an application from Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline for approval of a new pipeline service and toll, citing uncertainty of natural gas market.

The regulator says Maritimes and Northeast had offered a load retention service and discounted rate to Irving Oil Ltd. in exchange for a 13-year commitment to use the pipeline to ship up to 68,579 gigajoules per day of natural gas from the Canada/U.S. border in St. Stephen, N.B., to the Irving Oil Refinery and cogeneration facility in Saint John, N.B.

The NEB says Maritimes and Northeast offered the service to Irving Oil in response to a competing offer from the Emera Brunswick Pipeline.

In its decision, the regulator says it turned down the application because it was premature, noting that the natural gas market in the Maritimes is facing a period of uncertainty around current and future natural gas supply and markets.

The NEB says it did not make any determination as to whether the load retention service toll would be just and reasonable and not unjustly discriminatory under the National Energy Act.