Holyrood man hoping to get right eyes on LNG proposal
By Craig Westcott
A Holyrood man with decades of experience in the oil industry is floating the idea of a liquified natural gas plant in his hometown in the hope of rescuing trillions of cubic feet of natural gas that is stranded offshore.
Darrin Sheppard sent his concept to the Public Utilities Board, which in turn ran it by Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, which turned it down. But that hasn’t dampened his enthusiasm. Sheppard said he really likes the eastern Canadian energy corridor proposal that has been touted to the federal government and welcomes the review of the upper Churchill Memorandum of Understanding.
Sheppard is hoping the oil companies will latch onto his idea of running pipelines from their offshore platforms to an LNG plant in Holyrood harbour for conversion into electricity and then on to NL Hydro’s converter station at Soldier’s Pond for transmission across the island and from there on to Nova Scotia through an upgraded version of the Maritime Link. Sheppard’s plan also envisions the platforms converting some of the natural gas they are sitting on into electricity at the platforms themselves and feeding that into the provincial grid via underwater cables. The third component of his proposal is to convert the Holyrood thermal generating plant from Bunker C oil, which it burns now, to liquified natural gas.
It’s an ambitious scheme that Sheppard has been working on for some time.
“I’m not getting paid or anything for it,” he said. “I’m 30 years working in shipbuilding, petrochemicals and offshore, and I’m so sick of no work in this place. I’ve had to leave my home multiple times and go to the ‘States, and so on. And it’s sickening to see all our resources constantly being given away or squandered… It just turns me off when I can see and know the value that our resources are right there on our doorstep and it’s bull to tell me it can’t be done here. We just don’t have the leadership in the political realm to do it.”
Sheppard said his proposal would solve two problems: provide a market for the trillions of cubic feet of natural gas lying offshore that the oil companies are using to pressurize their oil wells and provide a cleaner future for the Holyrood generating plant.
“Look at the jobs that are going to be lost by closing it,” Sheppard said of the generating station, which serves as a backup power supply for the Avalon Peninsula in case the lines from Muskrat Falls or Bay d’ Espoir go down.
“I’m from Holyrood, I grew up here, so I hear all the rumours (about the future of the plant),” Sheppard said. “It really bothered me. I knew the gas could be brought ashore, but what’s after changing now, is the proposed Atlantic Loop.”
The Atlantic Loop is a proposed upgrading of transmission lines between Quebec and the Maritimes. Sheppard said Newfoundland and Labrador could feed into that by tapping its offshore gas and sending more electricity to Nova Scotia.
However, the Maritime Link which was built by Nova Scotia utility Emera in exchange for a combination of free electricity and cheap electricity from NL Hydro as part of the Muskrat Falls deal, wasn’t built big enough to handle much more than its own imports.
“Okay, that’s fine,” said Sheppard. “The fact that we’ve got the corridor, means it’s only a matter of putting more cables down. That’s not a big deal. Cost-wise it is, but having the corridor from Muskrat makes a big difference… What I’m proposing is forget the Atlantic Loop, we want the Eastern Canadian Loop, which brings Ontario into the fold.”
Sheppard said he would like to see the oil companies adopt his idea before the Province signs the proposed renewal agreement with Hydro Quebec for Churchill Falls power.
Sheppard said the oil companies would be the best people to take on the project. The Province and federal government could entice them to do so by offering incentives in the form of carbon tax credits. And while both levels of government appear to be “all in” on the idea of green hydrogen using Newfoundland’s wind and water resources, said Sheppard, that technology is still not proven, and could be yet another boondoggle.
“Give the oil companies a tax credit for doing this work,” said Sheppard. “I don’t want NL Hydro or Nalcor designing this. It will be the same thing again as Muskrat Falls. I want the oil companies to do this, not some government agency.”
Sheppard said he hasn’t directly pitched his proposal to the oil companies but has given it to the provincial government in the hope it will back the idea.
“I’d love for someone to call me up from the oil companies and say, ‘We love your idea, can you help develop it?'” said Sheppard. “Because this needs to go to the next phase now.”
In the meantime, said Sheppard, he’d like to get the idea out there so people can at least consider it.
“Just think about it,” said Sheppard. “How much work would something like this create in the Avalon are? I’m sick of there being no work. I’ve got five more years of work. I’m 59, I want to retire and this my last hurrah, for Newfoundland, and for myself, and my business. And I want to get feedback. If it’s positive feedback, fine, and if it’s negative, I’ll take that too… I’m dying for some feedback.”