By Christine Buurma Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Federal regulators have approved a pipeline connection between a new liquefied natural-gas import terminal under development in Mississippi and existing pipeline systems that bring gas to eastern U.S. markets. The $59 million Pascagoula Expansion Project, a partnership between privately-held Florida Gas Transmission Co. and Williams Partners (WPZ), will transport gas from the Gulf LNG Clean Energy import terminal to the Florida Gas Transmission and Transco pipeline systems. The pipeline project will have a capacity of about 810 million cubic feet of gas a day and is expected to begin service in late summer 2011. The $1.1-billion Gulf LNG terminal, which will be able to send about 1.3 billion cubic feet of gas into U.S. markets daily, is scheduled to begin service in the fall of 2011. The project is owned by Sonangol, Angola's partly state-owned oil and gas company; the Crest Group, a group of Houston-based investors; and El Paso Corp. (EP), a Houston-based gas pipeline and production company. Angola LNG Supply Services will supply super-cooled liquid gas from Angola to the terminal under a long-term contract. Angola LNG is owned by affiliates of Sonangol, Chevron Corp. (CVX), BP PLC (BP, BP.LN), France's Total SA (TOT, FP.FR), and Italy's ENI (E, ENI.MI). -By Christine Buurma, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2143; christine.buurma@dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires July 21, 2010 11:51 ET (15:51 GMT)