Bear Head LNG receives construction permit

Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (LNG Ltd) has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Bear Head LNG Corp. (Bear Head LNG), has received a permit from the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board (UARB) to construct its proposed LNG project.

LNG Ltd expects the LNG project to receive the final approval required, from the Nova Scotia Environmental Board, in the second quarter of 2015.

Bear Head LNG is the first project in Eastern Canada to be granted such authorization from the UARB. This approval followed a recommendation from Lloyd's Register, the UARB's certifying authority.

Bear Head LNG has now obtained nine of the 10 initial Canadian federal, provincial, and local regulatory approvals needed to construct a LNG export facility on the Strait of Canso in Nova Scotia.

The LNG project reached another major milestone in February 2015, when the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) issued a letter concluding that the Bear Head LNG project is substantially the same as the project previously approved by CEAA. As a result, no further agency review is required.

LNG Ltd Managing Director and President of Bear Head LNG, Maurice Brand, said that the project was making excellent progress with all permits and approvals: "We are continuing to make very good progress on gas supply to Bear Head and are actively marketing the project with a number of LNG buyers."

John Godbold, Bear Head LNG's Project Director, said: "Bear Head LNG's preservation of the project's permits and approvals was critical in allowing us to make the progress we have achieved.

"We are quickly wrapping up the process of modifying the existing permits and approvals needed to construct a facility that will connect North American natural gas supplies with some of the world's most significant LNG markets."

Once constructed, the Bear Head LNG project will have an initial production capacity of 8 million tpy of export LNG. Godbold said project timing will depend on regulatory approval, as well as contracts with gas suppliers and LNG buyers. He said if the regulatory process continues to advance without major delay the facility would be in operation by 2019.

The Bear Head LNG site is located on the Strait of Canso in Point Tupper, Richmond County, Nova Scotia, which is about half the shipping distance to major European markets compared to US Gulf Coast ports, and is closer than its North American competitors, including those in British Columbia, to other burgeoning natural gas markets such as India. The Strait of Canso provides an ice-free natural deepwater port with direct access to the North Atlantic.

Edited from press release by Callum O'Reilly

Read the article online at: https://www.lngindustry.com/liquefaction/16032015/bear-head-lng-receives-construction-permit-418/