Goldboro LNG Developer Pieridae Goes Public

The name Pieridae Energy Ltd. may sound familiar to quite a few Nova Scotians, although they may not remember exactly where they’ve heard it before.

Pieridae Energy is one of three companies that have plans to develop a liquefied natural gas export facility at the Strait of Canso. More specifically, Pieridae wants to build its operation in Goldboro, Guysborough County, and now Pieridae is in the news again.

Building an LNG plant takes a lot of money and finding the funding, especially in today’s energy market, can be difficult. Nevertheless, Calgary-based Pieridae has managed to raise a considerable amount of money as a private firm, but management apparently felt it needed to take Pieridae public in order to raise all the funds it needs.

On Wednesday, management achieved a major step in its goal of going public. It announced it had completed an “arrangement” with Quebec-based Petrolia Inc. to merge the two companies and, through a reverse takeover process, Pieridae would assume Petrolia’s listing on the TSX Venture Exchange.

The newly merged company will also change its name to adopt Pieridae Energy Ltd.

The arrangement, which went into effect on Tuesday, allows Pieridae to “strategically position itself in the North American equity markets as a developing, fully integrated energy company, from an oil and gas producer to the sale of liquefied natural gas,” according to a company news release Wednesday.

The name Petrolia may also be familiar to some Nova Scotians because it had partnered with Halifax-based energy company Corridor Resources Ltd. in an attempt to develop the oil and gas potential on Anticosti Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The Quebec government, however, decided it didn’t want to allow oil and gas exploration on Anticosti, which was a difficult position to take because the provincial government owned an equity stake in Petrolia.

To help soften the blow to the companies involved in the Anticosti project, the Quebec government paid Corridor Resources about $19.5 million for its claim to the island’s oil and gas resource and Petrolia, as the operating partner, was paid slightly more.

The new Pieridae Energy stated in its release Wednesday that the Goldboro LNG project combined with the resource potential held by Petrolia “constitutes an opportunity for investors to participate in the evolution and growth of Canada’s only integrated LNG facility holding key permits and approvals for its current stage of development.”

The completion of the reverse takeover has received conditional approval of the TSX Venture Exchange and is subject to final approval after completion of the required filings from the company. Pieridae shares are expected to trade on the Venture exchange under the symbol PEA on the first trading day after the exchange announces its final approval.

The arrangement was also approved by the Quebec Superior Court on Oct. 16.

Steve Moran, CEO of Corridor Resources, told me Wednesday he agrees with those who believe that natural gas in this region will be overly expensive unless it finds a source of the resource available within the Maritimes, and he anticipates Pieridae will feel the same way.

Having an ally encouraging the investigation of the onshore natural gas potential in the Maritimes is welcomed by the Corridor chief executive. Corridor has extensive holdings of land which have potentially rich natural gas, but it is prevented from tapping the resource due to a ban on fracking in New Brunswick.

“Pieridae and Corridor are aligned in the belief the resource needs to be worked more fully to be understood,” Moran said. “The only guarantee we have now is that we’ll never know how much of a resource we have.”

http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/1514704-taylor-goldboro-lng-developer-pieridae-goes-public