‘I Hope We Don’t Blow It This Time’: Canada Grabs at Second Chance to Revive LNG Ambitions

“Smaller project are easier to manage, especially in Canada,” Enbridge chief executive Al Monaco told Reuters in an interview. “The need for global LNG is clearer now than it was before, we’re getting a second chance and I hope we don’t blow it this time. We’ve got to get on it right away.”

Environmental and regulatory hurdles to pipeline construction have discouraged new LNG terminals on Canada’s Atlantic coast. British Columbia’s Pacific coast is close to Canada’s vast Montney shale field and Asian markets, where LNG prices hit a record high last week.

Privately owned Port Edward LNG is raising capital and negotiating off-take agreements with Asian buyers, a Shell-led consortium is studying the feasibility of building Phase 2 of the LNG Canada project and last month Enbridge Inc. outlined a $1.5 billion investment in Pacific Energy Corp.’s Woodfibre LNG project.

Streamlined process

Developers, keen to avoid past mistakes, are securing support from indigenous people early, said Karen Ogen-Toews, CEO of the First Nations LNG Alliance. Companies are also modifying existing infrastructure to avoid lengthy regulatory delays.

“That is one major difference, the scale of these new LNG projects versus the old ones,” said Wood Mackenzie analyst Dulles Wang. “Producers and developers are conscious of the financial risk associated with larger projects.”