Canadian firm unveils Nova Scotia LNG plans

Gary Park, Petroleum News Calgary correspondent

Privately held Access Northeast Energy has formally emerged from obscurity with plans for a C$420 million liquefied natural gas terminal in Nova Scotia to supply up to 1 billion cubic feet per day to markets in the U.S. Northeast and Eastern Canada.

The Halifax-based firm, headed by former Shell Canada executive Gordon Hart, said it hopes to start construction on the Bear Head project in early 2005 and make its first deliveries by November 2007 and could expand to 1.25 billion cubic feet per day.

Access Northeast plans to process LNG from producers anywhere from Norway, to West Africa and Trinidad, Hart said.

He said the real advantage for overseas suppliers is that overseas LNG supply points are on average about 2,500 miles closer to Nova Scotia than to the Gulf of Mexico.

Hart said the terminal will be financed entirely from private sources, probably 30 percent from equity financing and 70 percent debt.

Eventually, Access Northeast hopes to build a second LNG receiving terminal at an undisclosed North American location that won’t be in direct competition with Bear Head, he said.

Privately owned Irving Oil is also in the running to build Canada’s first LNG facility, with plans for a C$500 million project at its crude oil receiving and storage terminal near Saint John, New Brunswick.