Canada seeks its share of gas boom

The shale gas "revolution" that has spurred a large number of proposed liquefied natural gas export projects in the United States is spreading across the border.自存倉 Several projects on the west coast of Canada are also targeting burgeoning Asian demand.Canada's Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver told the World Energy Congress that seven projects had been planned to export LNG from the nation, and more were expected so that as much as 60 million tonnes could be exported annually by 2020.Three of the projects have already obtained long-term export licences and are undergoing construction feasibility studies.Russ Girling, the chief executive of Calgary-based pipeline builder TransCanada, said western Canada's shorter distance to Asia compared with the US southern coast – where the US projects are concentrated – offset a lack of pipelines linking interior gas fields and the coast."Canada needs the infrastructure to get the gas to the port, whereas the US Gulf coast players exporting via the Panama Canal do not have that issue. But once it gets to the coast, Canada is a lot closer to Asia," he said on the sidelines of the congress.The federal government approval process was "relatively straight-forward" in Canada, which was well-endowed w迷你倉th oil and gas and had exported large amounts of both to the US for decades, Girling said.In the US, where gas export is a new development, debate on whether its new-found gas wealth should be exported has been intense between users such as power and chemical producers and gas project developers.TransCanada has been picked to build pipelines between gas fields and two proposed export terminals in the west coast. They include the 12 million tonnes a year LNG Canada project, which is 40 per cent owned by Shell, 20 per cent by PetroChina's parent China National Petroleum Corp, 20 per cent by Korea Gas and 20 per cent by Mitsubishi. The other is the 12 million tonnes a year Pacific Northwest LNG project, led by Malaysian state-backed energy firm Petronas.Another project, without TransCanada's involvement, is the 10 million tonnes a year Kitimat LNG project, owned equally by the Canadian units of US energy firms Chevron and Apache.Girling said Shell's project was aiming to make a final investment decision in 12 to 18 months, after clearing federal government regulatory and environmental approvals, as well as negotiations with aboriginal communities.He expected both the Shell and Petronas-led projects to start production in 2018 to 2019.Eric Ngmini storage