TransCanada will transport 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas daily as part of the C$1.5 billion agreement it signed with Progress Energy, a Malaysian company.

The pipeline would be an extension of its NGTL pipeline system in British Columbia that will interconnect with the planned Prince Rupert Gas Transmission project and will supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to a proposed LNG export plant in Prince Rupert, BC.

Progress Energy is owned by Malaysia's Petronas, which it acquired for $4.9 billion in 2011. After the buy-in, Petronas applied with the National Energy Board for license to export about 20 billion tonnes of LNG yearly from the West Coast.

To be called the North Montney Mainline, the 305-kilometre pipeline extension will reach the export delivery facilities in 2019, subject to regulatory approvals.

"The proposed North Montney Mainlina project will provide substantial new capacity on the NGTH System in response to the rapidly increasing development of natural gas resource in northeastern British Columbia," Reuters quoted Karl Jogannson, executive vice president of TransCanada and president of the company's Natural Gas Pipelines.

According to the timetable, the Aitken Creek section of the project would be operation by Q2 of 2015 and the Kahta section be finished by Q2 of 2017.

TransCanada is also the owner of the controversial Keystone X project whose permit is still up in the air. Despite the delays in Keystone, TransCanada is aggressive in its pipeline projects such as this one and the $11.6 billion Energy East line that would transport up to 1.1 million barrels of oil daily from western Canada.

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