Great find Jacko, just felt the whole article is well worth reading.
Bear Head LNG receives permit to construct
This approval followed a recommendation from Lloyd’s Register, the UARB’s certifying authority.
Bear Head LNG has now obtained nine of the 10 initial Canadian federal, provincial, and local regulatory approvals needed to construct a liquefied natural gas export facility on the Strait of Canso in Nova Scotia.
The UARB had first permitted Bear Head LNG as an LNG import facility in 2005. Facilities were partially constructed and have been kept in “hot-idle” status since 2008. The UARB previously granted extensions of the Permit to Construct in 2009 and 2013.
Bear Head LNG is now the only LNG project on the East Coast of Canada with all of the following project approvals and permits in place. Some of these approvals would take a minimum of 18 months to secure if such approvals had not been previously obtained and appropriately maintained as active.
APPROVALS AND PERMITS IN PLACE
- Permit to Construct (UARB)
- Transport Canada CEAA Screening (Federal Government)
- Navigable Waters Protection Act Authorizations (Federal Government)
- Fisheries and Oceans Canada CEAA Screening (Federal Government)
- Authorization for Works or Undertakings Affecting Fish Habitat (Federal Government)
- Environment Act Water Approval – Wetland Infill (Government of Nova Scotia)
- Breaking Soil of Highways Permit (Government of Nova Scotia)
- Development Permit (Municipality of Richmond County)
- Beaches Act Clearance (Government of Nova Scotia)
“Bear Head LNG’s preservation of the project’s permits and approvals was critical in allowing us to make the progress we have achieved,” John Godbold, Bear Head LNG’s project director said in a news release.
The last of the 10 initial Canadian environmental and engineering approvals required is an updated and amended registration document which will soon be filed with Nova Scotia Environment (NSE), the provincial government department with a broad mandate to protect the environment.
Bear Head LNG has submitted project description information to the department and anticipates NSE approval of this permit amendment in the second quarter of this year.
“We are quickly wrapping up the process of modifying the existing permits and approvals needed to construct a facility that will connect North American natural gas supplies with some of the world’s most significant LNG markets,” said Godbold.
Once constructed, the Bear Head LNG project will have an initial production capacity of 8 million tons per annum (mtpa) of export LNG. Godbold said project timing will depend on regulatory approval, as well as contracts with gas suppliers and LNG buyers. He said if the regulatory process continues to advance without major delay the facility would be in operation by 2019.
The Bear Head LNG site is located on the Strait of Canso in Point Tupper, Richmond County, Nova Scotia, which is about half the shipping distance to major European markets compared to U.S. Gulf Coast ports, and is closer than its North American competitors, including those in British Columbia, to other burgeoning natural gas markets such as India. The Strait of Canso provides an ice-free natural deepwater port with direct access to the North Atlantic.
http://www.capebretonpost.com/News/.../Bear-Head-LNG-receives-permit-to-construct/1
This Bear isn't hibernating any longer.
Expect TAs to be announced when JG speaks in May.
And the market simply hasn't priced in the superb progress Messrs Godbold & Salmon have made.
Go BH!
