Future of LNG in the province rests largely on these proposals

The B.C. government, under Christy Clark’s Liberals, launched a strategy to create a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export industry in 2012 to take advantage of burgeoning demand in energy-hungry Asia. Since then, 20 projects have been proposed but none are being built.

Now that Pacific NorthWest LNG, led by Malaysian state-controlled Petronas, has been cancelled, there remains three leading projects that have all-important regulatory approval from the B.C. and Canadian governments.

LNG Canada in Kitimat is an up-to-$40 billion project led by Shell. The company is redoing its bidding process to request proposals from contractors who would oversee engineering, procurement and construction management. It’s an effort to reduce costs, and part of an exercise meant to put the company in a position to make an investment decision on constructing a facility to coincide with the next estimated rise in natural gas prices in the middle of the next decade. A 650-kilometre pipeline would need to be built to supply the terminal.

Kitimat LNG, a $3.5-billion project, is a joint venture between Chevron and Australia-based Woodside. Kitimat LNG is re-evaluating its original project design, also to drive down costs. Similar to LNG Canada, the project is trying to position itself for an investment decision that would coincide with increased demand next decade. It would need to be supplied by a 463-kilometre pipeline, dubbed Pacific Trails Pipeline, which has wide First Nations support. Both major projects have critical support from the Haisla Nation in Kitimat.

The $1.6-billion Woodfibre LNG project near Squamish, owned by Indonesian billionaire Sukanto Tanoto, has made an investment decision to build but no construction date has been set. The company is having two competing firms examine its engineering design to reduce costs of the project. There’s no definitive timeline on that exercise, but it could be complete by the end of the year. The project must also meet requirements outlined in federal and provincial environmental approvals, as well as those outlined in a unique First Nations environmental review.