Steelhead LNG Names New Board Member

Steelhead LNG Names New Board Member

Steelhead LNG Corp., a Vancouver-based Liquefied Natural Gas project development company announced that former BC Attorney General Geoff Plant has joined the company as a member of its Board of Directors.

Steelhead LNG is led by an executive team that boasts more than eight decades of combined experience in the natural gas and LNG industry. The team includes: Nigel Kuzemko, CEO; Ian Hill, Vice President, Technical; Blaine Mersereau, Vice President, Commercial; and Ryan Patryluk, Vice President, Corporate Affairs. The company is currently working with a wide range of LNG-related stakeholders, suppliers and customers to develop LNG projects in BC.

According to Nigel Kuzemko, the appointment of Geoff Plant to the Board is a reflection of Steelhead LNG’s commitment to assembling an experienced corporate team with a comprehensive understanding of the issues and opportunities related to developing BC’s LNG sector.

“Like us, Geoff recognizes the tremendous potential LNG has to create a wide range of long-term benefits for BC,” said Kuzemko. “In addition to being a respected business leader with a comprehensive understanding of economic, political and social issues in BC, he is also widely recognized as one of Canada’s leading practitioners in the area of Aboriginal law and an expert in land and resource negotiations with First Nations, so we are honored to have him join our team.”

“I am pleased to join the Board of Steelhead LNG,” said Plant, who is counsel at the Vancouver law firm Gall, Legge, Grant & Munroe LLP. “I am confident that Nigel and his team have the global experience and expertise BC needs to help it realize the potential benefits of LNG.”

Nigel Kuzemko’s experience in the energy sector began as a geophysicist working on upstream exploration and production in the North Sea in 1986. His 22 years of senior executive experience in the energy sector includes extensive work on commercial arrangements in the natural gas industry for everything from upstream exploration through the value chain to retail energy, and gas and power trading.

In South America, Australia, Asia and across Europe, Kuzemko has played a key role in developing and growing the LNG divisions of global energy companies such as Shell, Santos, Qatargas and Gazprom. His experience includes negotiating numerous multi-billion dollar energy agreements, conceptualizing Gladstone LNG (Australia), governmental agreements, joint ventures, LNG sales agreements, as well as operating agreements and price reviews.

Next week, Kuzemko and his team will travel to South Korea for Gastech 2014 (March 24-27), one of the world’s foremost natural gas conference, where Kuzemko will participate in an exclusive session reserved for the world’s leading energy sector CEOs.

According to Kuzemko, British Columbia has all the entrepreneurial, educational and natural resources necessary to become a world leader in the responsible development of LNG. Furthermore, it is Steelhead LNG’s strong belief that its LNG developments in BC will help create additional BC-based businesses that provide engineering, construction, accommodation, marine, transportation and other LNG sector-related services.

“Today we are entirely focused on LNG-related infrastructure in British Columbia,” says Kuzemko. “Our people and the projects we are developing are all BC-based. As a result, we are unhampered or distracted by commitments to projects outside BC or other investments in non-LNG energy sectors. Our philosophy, our approach and our decisions are all closely aligned with the interests of British Columbia and its aspirations to be a competitive supplier of the cleanest LNG in the world.”

Steelhead LNG’s Ian Hill (VP, Technical) said the company is committed to applying and sharing its global experience and expertise with British Columbians in order to develop the province’s technical and project delivery capacity in the LNG sector.

Hill has more than 40 years’ experience in the oil and gas industry, including 37 with the Royal Dutch Shell Group of companies. Over his distinguished career, his technical development, engineering management and project leadership roles have covered the full project development cycle, including identification, feasibility and concept selection, integration of subsurface and surface disciplines, FEED (front end engineering design), EPC&C (engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning) and engagement with national ministerial or regulatory bodies.

His experience spans offshore and onshore oil and gas exploration and production, and the gas midstream sector, primarily LNG. Among his many industry achievements is leading the development of Shell’s original floating LNG concept.

On the upstream and commercial side, Steelhead LNG has nearly thirty years’ experience in the gas, power, oil, NGLs and LNG sectors across North America through Blaine Mersereau, (VP, Commercial). Commercially skilled and technically trained in geology, Mersereau has worked for corporations such as Shell Canada Energy (LNG Canada), EnCana, Anadarko Canada, Florida Power & Light, Lectrix Canada, Berkley Petroleum and TransAlta Energy.

His extensive corporate, regulatory and technical expertise includes successfully managing grass roots business opportunities from inception through to commercial operations, establishing governance and risk management systems with new venture start-ups, and brokering deals. His industry achievements include developing the business plan for North America’s first electronic trading system for natural gas (Energy Exchange Inc.), founding North America’s first international, merchant power transmission line (Montana Alberta Transmission Line), and established energy trading departments for several multi-national energy marketing companies.

Overseeing Steelhead LNG’s financial structuring and negotiations will be Ryan Patryluk, a former partner at Heenan Blaikie and a founding partner at Michael, Evrensel & Pawar LLP (operating as MEP Business Counsel). Patryluk is a proven leader in structuring domestic and international projects with a diverse legal and commercial background.

As a lawyer qualified in Canada, England and Wales and New York, Patryluk has represented some of the world’s largest institutional and investment banks and asset managers, and has led negotiations to establish international joint ventures and other business relationships within Canada and abroad. In legal and business roles with major international firms in Canada, the United States and Europe, Patryluk has focused on strategic business mandates, infrastructure and energy projects, acquisitions/ dispositions and major debt and equity financings.

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Press Release, March 19, 2014; Image: Steelhead LNG