Another LNG facility will be proposed for the B.C. coast by Steelhead LNG Corp., and the company hopes to file an export licence soon.
Steelhead CEO Nigel Kuzemko said the LNG development company was formed late last year, but he provided no details as to where its proposed B.C. plant would be located.
“We are looking at more than one site. We’re looking at both floating LNG facilities, as well as a land-based facility.”
Steelhead LNG’s investors include KERN Partners, a Calgary-based energy sector private equity firm, which is funded by a group of leading Canadian pension funds, North American university endowments, foundations, institutions and family offices.
KERN’s team has significant experience in the upstream oil and gas, energy infrastructure, energy technology and oil and gas service sectors. It has more than $2.3 billion under management.
Kuzemko said the opportunity in the Asian market is “substantial.”
“We understand the markets; between us, we have been marketing LNG to Asian buyers for more than 20 years for a number of different LNG exporters.”
He added that the company was formed in October 2013, “but we’ve been working on the project since last August.”
Kuzemko said the plan is to file an export licence in the next six to eight weeks. He said a land-based facility would produce somewhere between 12 million and 24 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) while a floating facility would produce up to six million.
The company also announced that former B.C. attorney general Geoff Plant has joined its board of directors.
A news release stated that Steelhead LNG’s executive team boasts more than eight decades of combined experience in the natural gas and LNG industry and, aside from Kuzemko, includes Ian Hill (vice-president, technical), Blaine Mersereau (vice-president, commercial) and Ryan Patryluk (vice-president, corporate affairs).
The company said it’s “currently working with a wide range of LNG-related stakeholders, suppliers and customers to develop LNG projects in B.C.”
According to Kuzemko, Plant’s appointment to the board reflects Steelhead LNG’s “commitment to assembling an experienced corporate team with a comprehensive understanding of the issues and opportunities related to developing B.C.’s LNG sector.”
“Like us, Geoff recognizes the tremendous potential LNG has to create a wide range of long-term benefits for B.C.,”Kuzemko said.
Plant, the former BC Liberal cabinet minister, is a lawyer at the Vancouver law firm Gall, Legge, Grant & Munroe LLP. •
