OREANDA-NEWS. February 09, 2017. Canada's National Energy Board (NEB) has accepted an application by Woodfibre LNG to extend the company's export license to 40 years from 25 years, Woodfibre said.

The \\$1.6bn mid-scale project, which would be located near Squamish, British Columbia (BC), was authorized by the NEB in December 2013 to export up to 2.4mn t/yr of LNG, equivalent to about 331mn cf/d (9.4mn m?/d) of gas, for up to 25 years. The volume accounts for planned baseload production of 2.1mn t/yr plus a 15pc tolerance for potential peak production.

In 2015 the NEB increased the maximum duration of LNG export licenses to 40 years, as part of an effort to encourage developers to make positive investment decisions amid weakening economics for potential Canadian LNG exports. Projects that were previously authorized to export for 25 years were allowed to seek extensions for up to 40 years.

"This application, if successful, would provide even more assurance to government, First Nations partners, stakeholders and potential customers of the certainty of this project," said Woodfibre vice president of corporate affairs Byng Giraud.

The NEB will accept public comments on the application from tomorrow until 13 March.

In November Woodfibre became the first Canadian LNG export project to make a positive investment decision, saying it planned to start construction in 2017 and begin exports in 2020.Woodfibre told Argus today that it still expects to adhere to that timeline.

The company earlier this month also applied to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency to amend its environmental permit to use air cooling rather than seawater cooling, as well as make two other minor modifications. The changes were requested by the Squamish First Nations group in exchange for its support of the project. Air cooling would reduce environmental impacts but could produce about 2pc less LNG than sea water cooling.

Woodfibre' s parent company, Pacific Oil & Gas (PO&G), is developing the project to primarily target the Asian market. PO&G is owned by Singapore-based Royal Golden Eagle, which owns various manufacturing enterprises in Asia and Brazil, including paper mills.

PO&G owns 35pc of the Jiangsu LNG import terminal in China and is one of only two foreign-owned companies allowed to invest in Chinese LNG import facilities. In May, China's Guangzhou Gas signed a non-binding, 25-year deal to import up to 1mn t/yr from Woodfibre starting in 2020.

Woodfibre would procure gas via an upgrade to the existing regional pipeline grid and would not need a multi-billion-dollar pipeline traversing hundreds of miles of mountainous terrain like a number of other proposed Canadian LNG projects.