Canada’s National Energy Board (NEB) last week granted import/export licenses to two liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal projects. Separately, backers of Goldboro LNG and Bear Head LNG received approvals to send liquefied U.S. and Canadian gas to world markets.

Goldboro LNG, sponsored by privately owned Pieridae Energy Ltd., received 20-year import/export permits for its plant proposed near Halifax, Nova Scotia, to ship overseas a mixture of imports from the eastern United States and planned Atlantic Canadian production (see Daily GPI, May 26). The licenses let Goldboro ship out up to 1.6 Bcf/d, a volume that Pieridae intends to achieve in stages. Under the NEB ruling, up to 1.2 Bcf/d or 75% of the LNG export volume can be U.S.-sourced supplies.

The plan specifies that Goldboro’s U.S. gas will arrive in Canada on Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline (MNP). MNP has been a southbound export route to New England for production from offshore of Nova Scotia since 1999. But the wells are depleting and MNP is in talks with industry participants on converting itself into a northbound line, mostly for U.S. shale gas supplies but also for Canadian gas following transit routes across the northeastern states.

Goldboro stands out as the only entry in the 25-project Canadian LNG lineup that has secured and disclosed a sales contract with an overseas customer. Pieridae has a 20-year contract for E.ON Global Commodities SE, a trading arm of a European utilities conglomerate, to take half of the proposed Nova Scotia terminal’s maximum exports.

The Goldboro facilities have received environmental approval by the Nova Scotia government. Pieridae has also lined up a gas supply development partnership with Calgary-based Kicking Horse Energy Inc. The plan calls for drilling in both Atlantic Canada and the northeastern U.S.

Front-end engineering and design (FEED) work is under way on the Goldboro project. The schedule calls for a final decision on starting construction this year, and for overseas tanker loadings to begin in 2020. Total costs have been estimated at about C$8 billion (US$6.2 billion).

The NEB also granted Bear Head LNG Corp. and Bear Head LNG (USA) LLC authorization to export LNG from Bear Head LNG’s project site on the Strait of Canso in Nova Scotia.

Bear Head was given authority to export up to 8 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of LNG from Canada starting in 2019 with expanded authority to increase production to 12 mtpa in 2024. The export license extends for a period of 25 years from the date of first LNG export. Bear Head was also granted a license to import 800 MMcf/d of natural gas from the U.S., an amount adequate to produce the authorized annual LNG exports.

In July, the U.S. Department of Energy granted Bear Head export authorization to free trade agreement countries (see Daily GPI, July 20). In May, Bear Head received the last of 10 initial Canadian federal, provincial and local regulatory approvals needed to construct the proposed facility.

Bear Head LNG is owned by Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd. of Australia, which also is developing the Magnolia LNG terminal on the Calcasieu Ship in Lake Charles, LA (see Daily GPI,July 23).