Proposed Goldboro LNG plant officially abandoned after more than a decade

Alberta energy company Pieridae is pulling up stakes in Nova Scotia and abandoning plans for a liquefied natural gas terminal at Goldboro on the province's Eastern Shore.

Pieridae is selling its Goldboro subsidiary, associated assets, licences and permits that includemore than 108 hectares of undeveloped coastal industrial land in the province.

The company says the asset sale concludes a "strategic pivot away from east coast LNG and toward an Alberta-focused natural gas production and processing business."

The decision was disclosed infinancial results released earlier this month.

The company first proposed an LNG terminal at Goldboro in 2012.

The land-based facility would bring in natural gas from across North America and a marine terminal would ship 10 million tonnes per year to Europe.

The site would also have storage capacity for 380,000 cubic metres of LNG.

Company sought$925M from Ottawa

In March 2021, a coalition of environmental groups leaked a presentation Pieridae made to federal officials seeking $925 million in federal funding.

The request went nowhere.

Later that year, Pieridae shelved the project citing cost pressures.

Slimmed-down designs to revive the project have spluttered along since. The most recent called for shale natural gas from New Brunswick to be sourced.

Earlier this year, Pieridae told U.S. regulators it has spent $41 million Cdnon its Goldboro project. It was seeking permission to export U.S.natural gas.

Another company, Bear Head Energy, hoped to develop an LNG terminal in the Strait of Canso. In 2021, Bear Head "began to transition the project from LNG to the production of low carbon hydrogen and ammonia."