Americas News
New LNG Bunker Facility to Target US, Canadian East Coast Demand
Canada's Nova Scotia LNG Friday revealed plans to provide liquified natural gas (LNG) bunkering for the U.S. and Canadian East Coasts by 2017, Platts reports.
Dean Girdis, Director, Nova Scotia LNG, said the company intends to build two facilities in partnership with Nitrogas that will have a combined capacity of 180,000 to 260,000 mt/year.
The first of which is intended to be a 30,000 to 60,000 mt/year bunkering facility that Girdis says will be operational by 2017 and "would have the ability to dock ships directly at our berth for refuelling."
The second, larger facility, will follow up to two years later, and with a capacity of 150,000 to 200,000 mt/year was said to be more focused on diesel displacement markets in the Caribbean.
"We are beginning the permitting process this spring and would file an application with the Nova Scotia government," explained Girdis, adding that an export license will also be sought from the federal regulator, the National Energy Board (NEB).
He also noted reasons that the decision to build the facility on Canada's East Coast rather than in the U.S. included ease of permitting, access to offshore gas in Atlantic Canada, and support from stakeholders.
It is understood that Nova Scotia LNG is considering primarily land-based designs for the facilities, although a floating liquefaction system has not yet been ruled out, and the two facilities will need a total of 24 MMcf/d of feedstock gas which will be sourced from offshore Nova Scotia.
"If required, we have access to the Maritimes pipeline from where we could source Canadian gas from Quebec," he added.
The Government of Canada in February announced tax breaks to jumpstart LNG sector in Canada.
