Backed by a partnership representing the legal, environmental consulting, financial, and communications communities, the Calais LNG project calls for building and operating an LNG receiving terminal and storage facility near Calais in coastal Washington County, Maine. The 330-acre project site, located along the deepwater banks of the St. Croix River that separates Maine from the Canadian province of New Brunswick, is approximately six miles southeast of Calais.

The LNG import terminal would consist of the following: a single-berth marine LNG terminal; an unloading platform affixed to a pier; three cargo unloading arms (12,000 cubic meter per hour unloading capacity rate) and one vapor return arm on the pier; two 160,000-cubic-meter full-containment LNG storage tanks; boil-off gas and vapor handling system and sendout pumps; LNG vaporization system; emergency generator and separate uninterruptible power supply system; ancillary terminal facilities; a sendout meter; and a hazard monitoring system. The approximately 1,000-foot-long pier would accommodate LNG vessels ranging in cargo capacity from 120,000 to 170,000 cubic meters.

Calais LNG would link to the existing Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline, LLC pipeline system at Princeton, Maine, via a 20.5-mile-long, 36-inch-diameter sendout pipeline that would be built in conjunction with the terminal and storage facility. According to the project's backers, this close proximity to the pipeline is one of the key reasons why the project site is considered the best LNG site in the Northeast U.S. Other benefits of the site reportedly are its topography that prevents visibility from U.S. Route 1, its proximity to an industrial facility across the river in Canada, and the relatively minimal length of the pier.

Financing challenges

As of January 5, 2011, Calais LNG was still seeking a new financial backer for the project after the original key investor—Goldman Sachs—had dropped out of the project the previous summer. In conjunction with this development, Calais LNG lost an option to buy the land for the project. It has suspended the project as it addresses these challenges, and it has requested that regulators postpone action on the project application.

Should Calais LNG secure the necessary financing and regulatory approvals and be constructed, the project is expected to support approximately 250 construction jobs and from 40 to 60 permanent operations and maintenance jobs.