The National Energy Board has announced it will hold a public hearing on the BC LNG Co-op’s application for a gas export licence.
The Co-op is a joint venture between LNG Partners of Texas and the Haisla Nation and would use an LNG plant located on a barge to liquefy the natural gas.
It has an agreement with Pacific Northern Gas that would allow it to bring natural gas in via PNG’s existing pipeline.
It made its application in March of this year but had to wait for the NEB to deal with KM LNG’s application for a similar export licence. That hearing wrapped up last month.
The Co-op is seeking a 20-year licence to ship out a maximum 1.8 million tonnes of LNG per year. (The KM LNG plant will ultimately export 10 million tonnes per annum.)
At this stage the NEB has not decided whether to have a written public hearing or a full oral one as was held in the case of KM LNG.
It will make its decision after hearing from interested parties whether they feel an oral hearing is necessary.
Comments on that have to be into the NEB by September 1. That is also the deadline to register as an intervenor and comment on the list of issues outlined by the NEB,
They are:
1. Application of the Market-Based Procedure (MBP) to assess the merits of BC LNG’s application to export liquefied natural gas.
2. Overseas gas markets and the adequacy of gas export sales arrangements.
3. Status of required regulatory authorizations for the facility.
4. Consideration of the potential environmental effects of the proposed exportation and any social effects that would be directly related to those environmental effects.
5. Adequacy of natural gas supply to support the volumes and term of the applied-for licence.
6. The terms and conditions to be included in any licence that the Board may issue.
7. The adequacy of pipeline transportation arrangements pertaining to the volumes to be exported.
The Co-op has indicated that if it gets the licence, it would be able to ship LNG by the end of 2013.