Still waiting for word on its application for a licence to export liquefied natural gas (LNG), the BC LNG Export Co-operative has given the National Energy Board (NEB) a gentle push.
The Co-operative is a joint venture between Texas-based LNG Partners and the Haisla Nation and would see a barge-mounted LNG plant moored on the west side of the Douglas Channel, about halfway between the RTA smelter and the proposed site of the KM LNG land-based plant.
In a May 25 letter to the board, the Co-op asks that it issue a hearing order “as soon as practicable”, and adds the Co-op itself is facing an October 31 deadline for getting the export licence.
That deadline reflects arrangements it has made with its potential suppliers and “the need for producers to consider making alternate arrangements if the BC LNG facility is not going to be available to them.”
The ability to hit that deadline will depend on what kind of hearing process the NEB decides on, written or oral with the former being the quicker.
“BC LNG believes that its proposal…is of such small scale that it cannot reasonably be supposed
to have an impact on the very large markets which western Canadian gas is currently supplied and cannot reasonably be expected to have any other impacts that warrant an extensive process,” its letter continues.
Given Pacific Rim markets offer “a significant economic opportunity”, the Co-op said it believed it was in the interest of all players that the NEB maintain an “efficient and flexible” approach.
In an attached document, the Co-op said it has lined up seven producers: Birchcliffe Energy, ENERPLUS, Huron Energy, Northpoint Energy, Painted Pony Petroleum, Talisman Energy and Unconventional Gas Resource LP through its subsidiary UGR Blair Creek – all based in Calgary.
Between them they are producing 940 million cubic feet a day – nearly quadruple the amount the barge plant will need. And have proven reserves of 2.4 trillion cubic feet.
Less than one percent of those companies’ production is committed beyond 2013, the significance of that being the barge LNG plant is expected to start up in the fourth quarter of that year.
The implication is that if the Co-op cannot get its export licence by October 31 and the start up date is pushed back, those producers could end up entering into commitments with other buyers.
In addition to the producers, there are three interested natural gas marketing companies on the Co-op list: Pacific Gateway Energy (Hong Kong), Tenaska Marketing (Calgary) and Trafigura Beheer (Netherlands).
