British Columbia Premier Christy will soon head off on another foreign trade mission to try to drum up business for B.C.’s nascent liquefied natural gas industry.
Clark, Natural Gas Development Minister Rich Coleman and industry representatives will travel to Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong May 2 to 9 to promote B.C. LNG. It will be her fifth foreign trade mission.
But before leaving, Clark participated in a teleconference call April 30 with LNG Canada, which fleshed out its plans to build an LNG plant in Kitimat with the signing of a joint venture agreement involving its four partners.
The partners are Shell, PetroChina Co. Ltd., Korea Gas Corp. (Kogas) and Mitsubishi Corp. LNG Canada is one of more than a dozen proponents with plans to build an LNG plant in B.C.
Under the agreement, Shell will be the majority stakeholder. It will own 50% of the venture. PetroChina will own a 20% share, and Kogas and Mitsubishi will own 15% each.
“Today is not a final investment decision,” said Andy Calitz, CEO of LNG Canada, adding “we have a number of uncertainties to overcome.”
One of those uncertainties is the tax and regulatory framework that the province has been working on, and which has been delayed in being formalized.
The companies wanting to build LNG plants in B.C. – multi-billion-dollar investments – also still need to come to an agreement on pricing with Asian customers, some of whom have been pushing for a new price structure that de-indexes gas prices from oil prices and fixes prices more in line with the lower North American gas prices.
