US Dept. of Energy approved exports of fracked gas to Nova Scotia, National Energy Board import approval pending
Nova Scotia recently passed legislation banning fracking, but is quite happy to approve an $8 million LNG export terminal that will use American fracked natural gas.
Pieridae Energy (USA) Ltd. announced Tuesday that the US Department of Energy granted long-term multi-contract authorization to export natural gas to Canada for export to countries with which the USA has entered into a free trade agreement requiring national treatment for trade in natural gas.
Pieridae Energy (USA) Ltd. is now licensed to export up to 292 billion cubic feet (Bcf) per year of natural gas (0.8 Bcf per day) via the Maritimes Northeast US andCanada pipelines. The natural gas exported to Canada will be purchased by Pieridae Energy (Canada) and will then be processed at the proposed Goldboro LNG liquefaction facility located in Goldboro, Nova Scotia and exported as LNG to FTA countries.
Goldboro LNG will be North America’s closest mainland LNG export terminal to Europe and India. The facility will consist of a processing plant and facilities for the storage and export of LNG, including a marine jetty. It is expected to produce approximately 10 million tonnes per annum (MMTPA) of LNG and have on-site storage capacity of 690,000 cubic metres of LNG.
In June 2013, Pieridae entered into a 20-year sales agreement with European-based E.ON Global Commodities SE, a subsidiary of one of the world’s largest investor-owned power and gas companies, to deliver approximately five million metric tons per annum of LNG from the Goldboro LNG facility.
“We’re pleased to have achieved this important milestone for the Goldboro LNG project. It’s a significant step forward in the final investment decision process,” Alfred Sorensen, president and CEO of Pieridae, said in a press release.
“We look forward to continuing to work with the Department of Energy and the LNG community in the United States.”
The Goldboro LNG project received approval from Nova Scotia’s Minister of Environment in March 2014 and a firm has been selected to undertake the Front-End Engineering and Design of the project.
The Nova Scotia government banned fracking in mid-November in response to wide-spread public concern about effects on water quality and after an academic review recommending keeping the moratorium in place for decades. The government has said it is creating a definition of “high-volume hydraulic fracturing” and drafting regulations. Energy Minister Andrew Younger has suggested the ban may be much shorter than the review panel wanted.
Pieridae’s application to the Canadian National Energy Board (NEB) to import natural gas from the USA through the existing pipeline systems between Canada and the USA and to export LNG from Canada is pending.