Union Gas receives Ontario approval for major gas infrastructure expansion

CHATHAM -- Union Gas announced that the Ontario Energy Board has approved a significant expansion of natural gas pipeline and compression facilities that will give the province's homes and businesses more access to affordable and reliable natural gas supplies.

The facilities comprise approximately 14 km of 48 inch diameter pipeline southeast of the city of Cambridge along the existing Union Gas Dawn Parkway transmission system and two associated natural gas compressors at a new Parkway West site in Milton, all of which will help move increased natural gas supplies through the Ontario and eastern Canadian pipeline network. Construction is contingent on National Energy Board Approval of related pipeline facilities and will commence in the spring of 2014 with an expected completion in the fall of 2015.

The Union Gas Dawn Parkway transmission system provides for the movement of natural gas from the Dawn Market Hub, the largest integrated natural gas storage facility in Canada to the Greater Toronto Area, where it interconnects with other pipelines serving eastern Canadian and United States markets. With the decline in western Canadian supplies available to serve eastern Canada and the emergence of abundant, affordable gas supplies located close to Ontario in areas such as Pennsylvania and Ohio, the demand for natural gas transportation along the Dawn Parkway transmission system continues to increase.

The natural gas compression facilities at the Parkway West site will also provide much needed reliability to deliver increased natural gas supplies to the more than 5 million residents in the GTA and eastern Canada and the United Sates.

"Our investments, in conjunction with coordinated infrastructure projects by Enbridge Gas Distribution and TransCanada, will give residents, businesses and industries in Ontario and Quebec reliable access to affordable and diverse supplies of natural gas," said Steve Baker, president of Union Gas.