Pieridae moves closer to decision on Nova Scotia LNG export plant

Canadian energy company Pieridae Energy Ltd said it still expects to make a final investment decision by June 30 on its proposed Goldboro LNG export plant in Nova Scotia.

That would allow the $10 billion project to produce its first LNG in 2025-2026.

Pieridae is one of several firms to have delayed projects to build North American LNG export plants as global gas prices fell to their lowest in years in an oversupplied market in 2019 and then to record lows in 2020 after a coronavirus-induced demand collapse.

“Goldboro ... is beginning to look like ‘the last one standing’ with others in North America either being delayed or canceled outright," Pieridae Chief Executive Alfred Sorensen said in the company's first-quarter earnings release.

There are currently 12 projects in North America, including Goldboro, that have said they could make final investment decisions in 2021, though analysts expect only one or two of those projects will actually start construction this year.

Pieridae has a 20-year agreement to sell the LNG from Goldboro's first liquefaction train - about 5.2 millions tonnes per annum (MTPA) or 0.68 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas - to German utility Uniper SE.

The company said engineering firm Bechtel Corp plans to deliver a fixed-price proposal to build the plant by the end of May. The project would employ about 3,500 workers during peak construction.

Pieridae said it is committed to making Goldboro, which is designed to produce about 10.4 MTPA, a net zero emissions project by 2050.

The group plans to source the gas for the plant from its production in Alberta and transport it via existing pipelines, including the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline from New England to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, which passes near the Goldboro site.

(Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Jan Harvey)

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