Partners pull plug on Prince Rupert LNG project

CALGARY — In the latest setback to B.C.’s liquefied natural gas export industry prospects, the partners developing the Aurora LNG project say they are ending a feasibility study after four years.

Nexen Energy, a Calgarybased subsidiary of Chinese oil giant CNOOC Ltd., says it has decided with Japanese partner INPEX Gas British Columbia Ltd. to stop work on the proposal effective immediately.

The company says in a statement the current “macroeconomic environment” doesn’t support building a large LNG business as proposed at Digby Island, west of Prince Rupert.

In July, a consortium led by Malaysia’s state-owned Petronas cancelled its $36-billion Pacific NorthWest LNG project near Port Edward, B.C., citing a downturn in market conditions.

The project would have included a natural gas export terminal on Lelu Island and a 900-kilometre pipeline to bring the natural gas in from northeastern B.C.

The Aurora project was awaiting word on a B.C. environmen- tal assessment certificate.

Phase 1 was tentatively set to begin construction in 2020 and begin supercooling natural gas and shipping it to world markets by 2025.

Like Petronas, CNOOC says the Aurora partners will continue to produce natural gas from their Horn River wells in northeastern B.C. while monitoring the North American market to evaluate future investments.

In a recent report, the National Energy Board warned that Canada is a late entrant to the global LNG market.

The company says in a statement the current “macro-economic environment” doesn’t support building a large LNG business as proposed at Digby Island, west of Prince Rupert.