Pacific NorthWest LNG project one of three to participate in development agreement negotiations with BC Government

The process of delivering some forward momentum towards development of some of the province's LNG Terminal proposals is bringing the provincial government and three of the province's would be LNG Terminal developers together.

With the provincial government seemingly looking to create certainty for the would be investors, particularly when it comes to such items as tax rates, gas royalties and other issues related to the large scale developments.

Among the three groups reportedly engaged in those discussions are representatives of Pacific NorthWest LNG, which has proposed an LNG terminal to be developed on Lelu Island near Port Edward.

This weekend, the Vancouver Sun's Gordon Hoekstra provided some background to the under the radar process of those discussions, with this item posted to the newspaper's website yesterday.

In his review, Hoekstra interviews a number of industry observers, who offer up some analysis that notes that agreements such as these are more common in countries with high political risk.  The process often used to reassure large investors, designed to provide certainty over concerns that a change of government could result in revisions to business arrangements.

For the moment British Columbians apparently won't learn much about those discussions, as according to Hoekstra's work, Natural Gas Minister Rich Coleman, has said that the details will not be made public until after a company makes a final investment decision.

The latest timeline regarding the Petronas led bid for the Pacific NorthWest LNG project anticipates a mid summer announcement regarding their Lelu Island proposal.

However, in recent weeks, the Environmental Assessment process for that project has been put on pause, as the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency seeks out more information on aspects of the proposed development.

Any  potential delay to the end of the EA process, could  have some impact when it comes to Petronas selecting a date for that highly anticipated Final Investment Decision.

For more items related to LNG development in the province see our general information archive, for notes related to the Pacific Northwest project see our archive of items for that proposal here.