Eastern Canadian LNG project wins buyers in shadow of rival Shell

Bloomberg

Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s giant liquefied natural gas project in western Canada may be grabbing the headlines, but a smaller rival in the east is busy lining up another customer from Europe.
Pieridae Energy is negotiating a binding agreement to supply LNG from its proposed Goldboro project in Nova Scotia to Axpo Holding AG, an energy company in Switzerland, which will then
sell the fuel across European markets.
The deal would move Goldboro a step closer to achieving a final investment decision for the facility.
Goldboro benefits from being just seven days by tanker from Europe, providing a cost advantage for LNG to better compete with the cheaper pipeline gas from Russia and Norway.
Axpo’s trading arm plans to buy LNG from the facility’s Train 2 production line when commercial supplies are scheduled to start in the third quarter of 2023. Under the agreement, purchases will last for 10 years.
Goldboro secured a similar deal five years ago with German utility Uniper SE, which agreed to buy 5 million tons a year, or about half of the project’s planned capacity.
“Pieridae Energy will continue to seek to build a long-term portfolio of natural gas to supply the Goldboro LNG terminal,” Axpo said.
“In this context, the term sheet for the LNG sale and purchase agreement with Axpo is key for the company.”