Will Prince Rupert's Petronas loss, become Kitimat's Petronas gain?

Petronas may not soon be forgotten in Prince Rupert, but looking to the future it appears that the Malaysian energy giant has already turned the page here and instead may be heading back to the North Coast and this time casting their eyes to the east.

That at least is the theme of  an update on some percolating plans in Kitimat that the Globe and Mail's Brent Jang has unearthed.

The Globe journalist has connected some of the recent dots when it comes to the Malaysians' plans and citing sources familiar with Petronas he notes that the energy company is giving some thought to signing on to a share of the proposed LNG Canada project in Kitimat.

Having abandoned their Prince Rupert plans, Petronas is reportedly looking
at acquiring a share of the LNG Canada project in Kitimat
(artists rendition of Kitimat terminal from LNG Canada website)

In his article posted Monday night, Mr. Jang notes that the options for Petronas include acquiring a 15 percent interest held by Korea Gas, while another option for Petronas which still holds large gas reserves in British Columbia is to try and find a route to Asia ocean through the United States.

With LNG Canada having already secured its permits and completed its environmental work towards their project, the shift in focus for Petronas could be one way for the energy giant to secure a shipment source for its gas without having to navigate the still uncharted waters of the NDP's LNG policy moving towards the future.

Petronas announced the cancellation of its Pacific NorthWest LNG project last month.

LNG Canada recently introduced some of its plans to start with some remediation work on the old Methanex site in Kitimat that would serve as their terminal location.

Earlier this month, officials of the Shell led consortium behind the project noted that they were looking to reach an export terminal decision sometime in 2018.





The most recent update from LNG Canada puts a focus on some of the education initiatives that the company has been a part of in the Terrace/Kitimat region over the last year.

You can review some of the latest items related to the LNG Canada project in Kitimat from our archive page.

A trip down what is now memory lane for Prince Rupert and Port Edward can be found on our Pacific NorthWest LNG archive here.