Premier Christy Clark played up the province’s growing liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry in her keynote address at the International LNG in BC conference in Vancouver.
She said she remains positive that construction will take place on some of the numerous proposals for projects, which has doubled since the first annual conference last year.
While she didn’t specifically point out potential challengers for providing LNG in the global market, she said that B.C. will remain an attractive place for investors due to political stability.
“We won’t be anyone’s sole supplier, but we do know that every company wants to have at least one honourable, reliable partner where they know their supply of natural gas will never be imperilled by politics,” she said.
Among other upcoming LNG successes she pointed to an agreement made during his last oversears trade mission which has set a November 30 deadline to finalize a project development agreement with Petronas and Woodfibre LNG. Petronas, with a goal of operating in Prince Rupert, is suggested by Clark to eventually be the first to reach a final investment decision, while Woodfibre is based in Squamish and Clark said may be the first LNG project in operation in B.C.
“With both companies with agreed to finalize our project development agreement by November 30 at the latest. That is the last step before getting to final investment decision...it means B.C. will sit down with both companies and grind in to the detail so we can make sure we have absolute certainty of the numbers. Absolute certainty on all the costs. All the costs that are under government control and that are specific to LNG. That includes certainty on all taxes and the cost of any regulatory requirements.”