Quoddy Bay LNG: The company and its proposal

Quoddy Bay LNG, Oklahoma City company Quoddy Bay LLC, part of Smith Cogeneration family of companies.

PROPOSED SITE: Split Rock on Passamaquoddy Tribe land

CURRENT EMPLOYEES: About a dozen executives on parent company Smith Cogeneration’s development and management team. Smith Cogeneration has other employees working at its power generating operations that are not part of the Quoddy Bay project. A community relations director works out of an office in Perry.

FUTURE JOBS: About 400 jobs during two-year construction; 70-100 people to operate facility.

PROCESSING CAPACITY: 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas daily valued at $12 million at current prices.

ANNUAL PRODUCT WORTH: $4 billion plus.

SITE PARTICULARS: Two-berth pier extending 1,300 feet into Western Passage, separating Pleasant Point and Eastport from Deer Island in New Brunswick. Liquid fuel piped across Route 190 to storage and vaporization facility a half-mile west in Perry. LNG stored in three tanks, with total capacity of 10 billion cubic feet, and piped as gas by 35-mile connection to the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline in Princeton. Firm plans to mix nitrogen with processed natural gas to make it more suitable for use.

ROUTE: LNG tanker ships would go through Head Harbour Passage, a Canadian waterway connecting Passamaquoddy Bay with the Bay of Fundy.

STATUS: Preliminary proposal submitted to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; FERC review under way; approval process could take another 11/2 years.

TARGET OPERATION DATE: 2009.

CAPITAL RAISED: Financed through Smith Cogeneration. Details about Quoddy Bay LLC or Smith Cogeneration, both private companies, not available.

Don Smith, president of Smith Cogeneration.

Brian Smith, project manager and son of Don Smith.

SMITH COGENERATION: Developed and owns a 110-megawatt power plant in Oklahoma City that provides electricity to Oklahoma Power & Gas and steam to a local tire plant; developed, manages and maintains a 185-megawatt power plant on a large floating barge in the Dominican Republic; involved in legal disputes, including a financial disagreement with Enron over the Dominican power-barge project, in which the two companies were partners; accused of failing to meet its financial obligations for some projects. Don Smith has defended company’s financial performance, indicating any issues were result of the firm’s resistance to participating in foreign deals involving “corruption” or “under-the-table” agreements.