LNG firm says it can hike BH volume

Capacity will be double what was planned at the liquefied natural gas facility at the Strait of Canso if permitting changes go through, the owners announced Friday.

Bear Head LNG Corp. is asking the province to modify the existing construction and environmental permits for the facility, which it plans to open in 2018 or 2019.

Initial plans had the facility handling four million tonnes per annum but, if approved, it would handle eight.

Like some similar facilities, the Bear Head site would handle natural gas in units of two million tonnes per annum at a time. Keeping the units at that size “allows us to draw gas from multiple sources,” said Ian Salmon, chief financial officer of Bear Head LNG.

The company plans to export natural gas from offshore Nova Scotia, as well as several other sources across North America, whose only LNG exporting facility is a small one in Alaska.

“Obviously, the Marcellus in the United States and the offshore in Nova Scotia have enough easily for two (million tonnes per annum) each,” said Salmon.

“But then there are umpteen others that we will chase down as it makes commercial sense.”

The project was flooded with investor interest in July after Bear Head LNG raised $38.6 million for it, according to a company news release. The share placement was oversubscribed, and American and Australian investors quickly took it up, said the release.

“It will not delay the project at all,” said Salmon.

“If anything, it’s due to the overwhelming demand that we’ve been coming at.”

Increasing capacity won’t change plans to transport the gas to Nova Scotia by pipeline, he said.

Competing projects will still be six months to a year behind Bear Head opening if the development schedule continues according to plan, said chief operating officer John Godbold.

There are already 12 permits in place to build the facility, said the news release. They include an approved environmental assessment, permits from the Natural Resources Department and the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board, and a development permit from Richmond County municipality.

The prior owners of the Strait of Canso site spent more than $100 million on engineering and construction in the early 2000s, and the facility has been in “hot idle” readiness status since then.

The current project will “piggyback” on nearly finished design and engineering work for the LNG export terminal under development in Louisiana by Magnolia LNG LLC, also a wholly owned subsidiary of LNGL, the Australian parent company of Bear Head LNG.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1248049-lng-firm-says-it-can-hike-volume

Go BH!