With offshore rigs closing and fracking banned on shore, future developments face headwinds in the Maritimes
Consumers and businesses in the Maritimes already have the highest natural gas bills in the country and that’s not likely to get better anytime soon due to an increasingly unsettled East Coast energy sector.
Colleen Mitchell, president of the Atlantica Centre for Energy The plant’s closure, by operator ExxonMobil Canada Ltd., was preceded by the loss of Encana Corp.’s Deep Panuke Offshore Gas Project, which was capped in May 2018. Production at Deep Panuke started in 2013, but never met expectations and didn’t become the Sable replacement it was supposed to be.
“That’s the prize. Our main focus in 2019 will be trying to secure a joint-venture partner for the Frederick Brook Shale,” Moran said. “Certainly, high natural gas prices enhance the potential for future expansion in New Brunswick.” Corridor has not determined when it might frack again in New Brunswick. But Mitchell predicts new gas development will arrive in New Brunswick in 2020.
“Our prices here are higher,” said John Hawkins, president of Heritage Gas Ltd., the only natural gas utility in Nova Scotia. Patrick Brannon, of the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council Heritage is also planning to store gas — bought at lower prices during the spring and summer — in a large storage facility, which Hawkins expects to be online by 2022.
“We have billions of dollars potentially of onshore natural gas reserves, but nothing can move ahead until there’s some movement ,” he said, referring to fracking bans in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. “It’s definitely an opportunity for Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Doing nothing isn’t really an option.”