3 Responses to “October 4, 2012”

1. mpisni says:

   October 5, 2012 at 6:40 am

   While the two western premiers are embroiled in some silly battle in order to garner political favour at home the US will scoop this opportuntiy leaving Canada with the crumbs. Exporting LNG is the only way out of low prices and allowing these two feuding Premiers to carry on is wrong . Grow up girls and do your job !

2. Andy S says:

   October 5, 2012 at 10:16 pm

   Huh? The article specifically refers to Canadian projects under development to export LNG to Asia via Kitimat, whereas the Alaskan projects face all kinds of delays and hurdles. And it’s a Canadian company driving the Alaskan project.

   It’s usually a safe assumption that Canadians are behind the Americans, but not in this case.

3. jiHymas says:

   October 9, 2012 at 2:53 pm

   The Northern Gateway project is deeply enmeshed in regulatory, political and aboriginal problems:

   One of Canada’s most outspoken champions of the oil and gas industry has doubts whether Enbridge will ever build a pipeline to the B.C. coast — even if the $6-billion project gets federal approval.

   Former B.C. energy minister Richard Neufeld, now a Conservative senator, said he strongly supports the construction of pipelines to the B.C. coast so Canada can ship Alberta’s diluted bitumen crude to booming Asian markets.

   True, Northern Gateway is bitumen, not gas. But with LNG, there is also competition from Australia:

   Canada’s bid to export natural gas to Pacific markets should be a slam dunk. British Columbia has giant reserves of gas located relatively near tidewater, and Asia is begging for more of it.

   But the first project in line to export that gas from Canada has faced trouble inking the profitable deals needed to sell its product to foreign buyers, casting a shadow over the tens of billions of dollars in investments proposed for the West Coast.
   …
   In other words, Canadian gas exports are anything but a slam dunk, especially with Australia’s substantial lead to market. It is a global race to sell LNG, said PricewaterhouseCoopers national energy leader Reynold Tetzlaff, and Australia has an important lead.

   “Canada is going to have to work its way into the market,” he said. “If you can’t get the long-term contracts, it’s hard to make these projects economic.”

   I don’t think it matters that a Canadian-domiciled company is part of the Alaska consortium. The plant itself, with 15,000 permanent jobs, will be on US soil, paying US taxes and complying with US regulations. Everything else can be bought and sold at will.