The in-service date for the new Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline expansion, which includes a new compressor station near the junction of Day and Lambert roads, isn’t until November, but the company already is planning another expansion.

The newest expansion, dubbed Phase V, would increase Maritimes & Northeast’s capacity significantly and would mean another multimillion-dollar investment in the city, City Manager Steve Bost announced.

"The project will add $20 million to the value of the Brewer station," he said Friday. "It’s very good news for Brewer’s future tax base."

If the Phase V project is approved, an additional turbine and related facility equipment would need to be added to the compressor station in Brewer, which was started in July 2007 and is expected to be finished in April. The new compressor station also needs to be tied into the existing pipeline.

Maritimes & Northeast, which ships natural gas through Maine to Massachusetts, is tripling its capacity under its Phase IV project with a new 146-mile pipeline, located for the most part next to an 850-mile pipeline system built in the late 1990s that runs from Baileyville to Eliot.

The expected in-service date for the Phase IV pipeline is Nov. 1.

The company is now proposing Phase V to increase the capacity of the United States portion of its pipeline system to transport new natural gas supplies from EnCana Corp.’s planned Deep Panuke project, which is located off the coast of Nova Scotia, a press release said.

"Maritimes has executed a commercial agreement with a subsidiary of EnCana to transport up to 170,000 dekatherms per day (Dth/d) year-round, and an additional 30,000 Dth/d during the winter months," it stated.

The Phase V project would increase the capacity of the approximately 330 miles of pipeline between Baileyville and Massachusetts by adding additional compression equipment at existing compressor stations, and a short length of pipeline loop within an existing corridor.

"With direct access to the Northeast, the Maritimes system … is the ideal route to bring new volumes of offshore supply to markets where demand continues to grow," said Tina Faraca, Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline president.

If approved, Maritimes’ Phase V, projected to cost approximately $240 million, would go into service in November 2010. The project needs to get state and federal permits to proceed.

In Canada, the new Phase IV pipeline extends to Sable Island, Nova Scotia, and connects to lines to the south into New Hampshire and a network of natural gas lines in Massachusetts.

Maritimes & Northeast is owned by U.S.-based companies Spectra Energy, formerly known as Duke Energy Corp., and Exxon Mobil Corp., and Canadian-based energy company Emera Inc.

Brewer city officials are pleased with the Phase IV project — and the proposed expansion because it will spur a huge amount of additional property tax revenue, Finance Director Karen Fussell said Friday.

"It’s pretty huge," she said. "They’ll become our largest taxpayer."

Currently, Lemforder Corp. is the largest taxpayer, with a property value just under $30 million, which amounts to about 4.5 percent of the city’s tax base.

The new compressor station’s cost estimate is $30 million to $35 million and the proposed $20 million expansion would place it at the top of the tax rolls, Fussell said.

"We’re very pleased about this," she said. "The impact is significant."

Because the facility will not be up and running until late in the fall, the city will tax it at a reduced rate for fiscal year 2009, but will fully tax it in 2010, Fussell said.

A copyright story from the Bangor Daily News, Saturday, February 9, 2008.