Encana Corporation announced Friday that it has bought a 30 per cent share in the proposed KM LNG natural gas liquefaction plant at Beese (Bish) Cove.
It will also get a 30 per cent share in the Pacific Trail Pipeline that will be built to supply the plant.
Apache bought a 51 per cent share in KM LNG in January 2010 from Galveston-owned Kitimat LNG. EOG bought the remaining 49 per cent in December last year.
And in February of this year Apache and EOG bought out Pacific Northern Gas’ 50 per cent share in the Pacific Trial Pipeline.
With Encana buying in, Apache’s share will drop to 40 per cent, EOG’s to 30 per cent.
Apache would continue to be operator of the LNG facility.
Encana and Apache are no strangers, being 50:50 partners in a major gas play in the Horn River Basin in Northeastern BC.
The proposed KM LNG plant would need 700 million cubic feet of natural gas a day and produce about five million tonnes of LNG annually.
But Encana noted in its purchase release that this is only the first of two potential phases.
Encana President and CEO Randy Eresman was quoted as saying, “We expect that this project will help advance North America’s natural gas economy across the Pacific to markets where demand is growing and natural gas prices are more closely tied to oil prices,”