There’s a race on between British Columbia and Nova Scotia to export liquefied natural gas to energy-hungry Europe and development-hungry India and China.
For Europe and India, Nova Scotia has the edge: location, location, location. Providing Egypt’s Suez Canal is open for business, Halifax is more than 30 per cent closer than Kitimat, B.C., to the west coast of India, home to several LNG regasification terminals.
And the distance from Halifax to the LNG terminal in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, is less than half as far from Vancouver to Rotterdam via the Panama Canal.
Our North Atlantic location gives us an advantage over eastern U.S. ports as well. Halifax is about a full day closer to Rotterdam than New York City.
Pieridae Energy president and CEO Alfred Sorensen. (RYAN TAPLIN / Staff)
The details of distance could do much to explain why Pieridae Energy Canada Ltd. signed a deal last week with German energy company E.ON Global Commodities SE to export more than $35 billion in natural gas over 20 years from a plant proposed for Goldboro, Guysborough County.
Europe is looking for secure supplies and alternatives to Russia’s OAO Gazprom, which has been in a supply-disrupting price dispute with Ukraine.
Pieridae and partner Contact Exploration Ltd. of Calgary are negotiating with Canadian and U.S. natural gas producers to secure supply for the export facility, which would employ about 3,500 construction workers and about 200 employees once the plant and terminal are up and running.
Those are encouraging figures for Guysborough County, particularly hard hit by the outmigration of workers. Statistics Canada says the county’s population dropped by almost 12 per cent from 2006 until 2011.
Last month, Indian firm H-Energy of Mumbai announced it had an option to buy land for an LNG plant and export terminal on the Strait of Canso. Repsol’s Canaport LNG import facility in Saint John, N.B., could also be converted into an export facility.
Experts say the key to getting the first LNG export terminal in the Maritimes off the ground is securing supply.
Phil Knoll of Corridor Resources in Halifax says the Canaport facility, with storage and docking facilities in place, has an edge.
“But it comes down to who can put together the supply portfolio that will allow them to justify going ahead with the actual commitment to build,” he said last month.
Supply shouldn’t be a problem for any of the projects. Gas imports to the Maritimes from the Marcellus and Utica shale gas fields in the eastern United States could expand with Portland Natural Gas Transmission System’s plan to increase its New England pipeline capacity into this region. Gas from Nova Scotia’s offshore and New Brunswick’s gas fields is also available, with the possibility of gas production in Nova Scotia after a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing ends in mid-2014.
When it comes to nailing down supply, Pieridae may be ahead with its deal with partner Contact Exploration to tap Contact’s shale gas potential in New Brunswick.
And if Pieridae can make its Goldboro plant a reality, that will be excellent news for Guysborough County and for the province.
Post to be found at:
http://thechronicleherald.ca/editorials/1133693-editorial-lng-exports-on-horizon
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