Woodfibre LNG the project most likely to become reality: study

VANCOUVER, B.C. — In B.C., 20 LNG facilities are on the drawing board, but over the past 18 months, the outlook has become increasingly bleak.

In the face of this, World Gas Intelligence said the player with the best chance of forging ahead is Woodfibre LNG, a small-scale project near Squamish, according to a story from the Globe and Mail,

“Just four LNG projects now look feasible on Canada’s West Coast – and even these may not go ahead, at least until prices and demand pick up,” according to the analysis titled ‘Canadian Death Spiral.’

The other three B.C. projects in the ‘most-likely-to-succeed club’ are in the province’s northwest. Pacific NorthWest LNG, a proposal to build an export terminal on Lelu Island in the Port of Prince Rupert, got the second ranking. In third is the LNG Canada venture in Kitimat, led by Royal Dutch Shell PLC. The fourth B.C. plan still strongly in the running is WCC LNG Project Ltd., which is seeking to construct at Tuck Inlet in Prince Rupert.

Environmental groups are opposed to Pacific NorthWest LNG, warning that juvenile salmon habitat is at risk of being destroyed in the Skeena River estuary.

But Mayor John Helin of the Lax Kw’alaams First Nation sent a letter on March 15 to the regulator to announce that the band council will support the project subject to certain conditions being followed.

Premier Christy Clark still predicts companies will be operating three LNG terminals in B.C. by 2020. But is seems only Woodfibre LNG, however, is in a solid position to be up and running by then.

“To be fair, the situation is not peculiar to Canada, as cratering oil and gas prices have combined with a growing LNG supply glut to paralyze new liquefaction projects almost everywhere, the study said.