N.J. Stat. § 48:9-23
Any gas company now existing, whether by special charter or by organization under an act entitled "An act to authorize the formation of gas light corporations and regulate the same," approved April 21, 1876, or hereafter organized under the laws of this State and actually engaged in the manufacture and supply of gas in the municipality for the supply of which it was organized or chartered, may extend its main pipes to any neighboring municipality wherein no gas company exists, for the purpose of supplying the same with gas; provided, the governing body of the neighboring municipality shall grant permission for that purpose.
When such permission shall be granted, the company shall have the same rights and privileges of laying gas mains and the like to and in the neighboring municipality as it has in the municipality where it was originally located.
N.J.S. § 48:9-23