LNG

The Canadian native American Haisla Nation of British Columbia and Pembina Pipeline Corp., who are partners in the development of Cedar LNG, have signed an accord with third parties to move forward with the venture proposed for the Douglas Channel.

Pembina Pipeline Corp., the Canadian infrastructure company, said there was still uncertainty surrounding the future of its Jordan Cove LNG export project in the northwest US state of Oregon as Pembina planned to take a natural gas pipeline one-off charge in the fourth quarter.

The Coastal GasLink pipeline to deliver at least 2.1-billion cubic feet of natural gas per day to the LNG Canada export plant being built in Kitimat in British Columbia will lay its first section of pipes in the ground in July and a peak workforce of 2,500 is expected to be on site in the months ahead.

Woodside Petroleum, the Australian operator of two liquefied natural gas plants, said its next earnings statement would recognise a non-cash impairment of $720 million in relation to the Kitimat LNG project and assets in the Canadian Pacific province of British Columbia.

The earnings will be released on February 13 by the company based in Perth, Western Australia. Woodside is operator of the Australian North West Shelf plant and Pluto LNG.

“Kitimat remains a world-class project and Woodside will continue to evaluate actively future development opportunities, including optimisation of gas supply into processing facilities,” said the Australian company.

“However, the impairment reflects increased uncertainty, particularly in the timing of the development of the upstream Liard resource, following sustained depressed gas market conditions in Western Canada,” it added.

Woodside became a shareholder in the Kitimat project in BC after buying a stake from US company Apache Corp. and joining lead developer and operator Chevron Corp. as a shareholder.

However, Woodside Chief Executive Peter Coleman said in 2019 that his company would be willing to reduce its current stake of 50 percent.

Chevron holds the other 50 percent stake in Kitimat LNG and the operatorship of the associated feed-gas reserves.

Coleman said at the time that Woodside did not like holding such a large share in any project when it was not the operator.

He explained that from a capital management and risk management point of view we would rather hold less equity.

The CEO said that in a major project where you are operating, you would like your stake to be between 40 percent and 60 percent equity. 

When you’re a non-operator, anywhere between 20 percent and 40 percent is the right number.

Chevron and Woodside have cooperated for the Kitimat project with the Haisla First Nation on whose traditional land the project at Bish Cove would be constructed.

Feed-gas for the Kitimat liquefaction plant will come from the large upstream shale-gas resources in the 322,000 net acres it has in the Horn River and Liard Basins of northeast BC.

Another nearby project is the Royal Dutch Shell-led LNG Canada joint venture.

Both project sites are almost adjacent and are located about 650 kilometres north of the province’s largest city, Vancouver.

Gazoduq Inc., the Québec natural gas pipeline developer, has completed the solicitation process for non-binding expressions of interest for transportation services on its  proposed 780-kilometre underground natural gas line leading to the GNL Québec liquefaction and export plant.

TransCanada Corp. said the National Energy Board had recommended government approval of a variance to the previously issued North Montney Mainline Project certificate, allowing construction to start on the $1.4 billion project originally linked to a cancelled LNG venture.

LNG Canada, the largest export project proposed for the Pacific Coast province of British Columbia, could hold a ground-breaking ceremony before the end of 2018 as the joint venture led by Royal Dutch Shell gets back on track.

TransCanada Corp., the Canadian and North American pipeline and infrastructure operator, has launched a new open season on its Nova Gas Transmission Ltd. (NGTL) system expansion for binding capacity commitments at the Empress-McNeill export delivery point onward to the US border for volumes formerly expected to be shipped as LNG from British Columbia to Asia.

Gazprom said its board considered a new report forecasting most global shale-gas production was likely to be concentrated primarily in North America in the medium-term and long-term so that the Russian natural gas company would have to boost its own shale and LNG prospects as European and Chinese developments lagged.