Crown LNG Holdings Ltd. CGBS-Q is pitching a project to export liquefied natural gas from Newfoundland and Labrador, saying the $15-billion proposal fits into the federal government’s agenda for spurring infrastructure in the national interest.
The London-based company is seeking to tap into offshore natural gas from the Jeanne d’Arc Basin, off the east coast of Newfoundland, and aiming to start LNG exports to Europe in 2030.
The goal is to construct a 380-kilometre pipeline that would transport natural gas from offshore to a liquefaction facility near the community of Fermeuse, located about 90 kilometres south of St. John’s.
Crown chief executive officer Swapan Kataria said he is emboldened by Prime Minister Mark Carney’s general support for energy projects to diversify the Canadian economy and wean dependence away from the United States.
“We believe that Prime Minister Carney’s vision can coincide with the demands in the market,” Mr. Kataria said in an interview on Tuesday from Milan, where the Gastech energy conference will be held next week.
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Crown, which is developing an LNG import terminal in India, is spearheading the export plans in Canada through St. John’s-based Fermeuse Energy Ltd.
Fermeuse Energy is hoping to help drive economic growth for Newfoundland and Labrador, with expertise built up from offshore oil megaprojects.
Mr. Kataria said he is optimistic about LNG demand from Scotland, where Crown is planning a floating LNG import facility, as well as strong demand from customers in European countries such as Poland and Germany.
He said Fermeuse Energy is ready and willing to overcome engineering complexities in the Atlantic Ocean, such as threats posed by Iceberg Alley, a stretch along Newfoundland and Labrador’s coastline that sees large amounts of icebergs each spring.
“It’s the pipeline that has been the biggest cause of concern for us. The cost of the pipeline shoots up substantially high because you have to trench the pipe, at least for a small portion, because that’s the portion where the icebergs usually come,” Mr. Kataria said. “We’ve done a lot of studies around it, and we are very comfortable that the pipeline cost and the project cost can actually sustain today’s market conditions.”
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The liquefaction hub at Fermeuse harbour could create more than 500 jobs during operations.
Over the past decade, various LNG export plans in British Columbia, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador have been either cancelled or remain stalled.
Three years ago, then-prime minister Justin Trudeau cast doubt on the business case for exporting LNG from Canada’s East Coast or Quebec to Europe.
While Mr. Carney has touted the Port of Churchill in Manitoba as a promising site for LNG exports to Europe, industry experts say that the best bet for Canada to increase LNG shipments will be from B.C. to Asia.
Shell PLC-led LNG Canada, the country’s first export terminal for the fuel, began shipments from Kitimat, B.C., to Asia earlier this summer.
Only two LNG projects are currently under construction in B.C., despite energy companies unveiling more than 20 proposals in the province from 2011 to 2015.
The first, Woodfibre LNG, anticipates that it will begin exports from its industrial site near Squamish by late 2027 and the second, Cedar LNG, expects to start shipments from Kitimat by late 2028. Woodfibre said on Tuesday that it has surpassed the halfway mark toward completing construction.
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LNG Canada is considering expanding operations that could double the plant’s capacity to 28 million tonnes a year. The Coastal GasLink pipeline, operated by TC Energy Corp., is transporting natural gas 670 kilometres from northeast B.C. to the Kitimat facility.
Two other prospects are Ksi Lisims LNG, backed by the Nisga’a Nation in Northern B.C., and FortisBC’s plans to expand its Tilbury Island domestic plant in Delta, near Vancouver.
The first LNG export facility in the U.S. mainland began operating in 2016, and another seven U.S. sites have opened since then. The already-mature pipeline network and other energy infrastructure along the Gulf Coast have helped the United States.
Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. recently transported one-fifth of the natural gas consumed in the U.S.
On Tuesday, Enbridge confirmed that it will be forging ahead with the Eiger Express pipeline, through its minority stake in the Matterhorn joint venture. The route in Texas will run from the Permian Basin to Katy, a city west of Houston, to serve the U.S. Gulf Coast’s LNG sector.
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Enbridge also signed commercial deals to boost deliveries on the Algonquin Gas Transmission line to local distribution companies in the U.S. Northeast.
Executives at Enbridge and Calgary-based TC Energy have said pipeline constraints hampered plans for exporting from Canada’s East Coast.
Multibillion-dollar pipeline upgrades by TC Energy in Ontario and Quebec would have been required to transport Western natural gas eastward to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
There are also circuitous routes to deal with, including between Maine and New Brunswick on the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline, which is 77.5 per cent owned by Enbridge.
While there has been interest in East Coast LNG proposals over the past decade, there isn’t a natural gas pipeline within Canada to directly connect Quebec with New Brunswick.
Simon Fraser University’s Clean Energy Research Group said that the focus should be on fighting climate change, so Canada needs to concentrate on renewable energy instead of perpetuating the use of fossil fuels.
“Every dollar invested into fossil fuels is one less that Canada has to reshape its economy to ensure net-positive economic growth, security, and global competitiveness,” Andy Hira, chair of SFU’s political science department, said in a statement.