Delays meant ‘headwinds’ too great for $36B Pacific NorthWest LNG project: exec
CALGARY — Plentiful cheap natural gas is no guarantee that a Canadian LNG export industry will develop, says an executive with Progress Energy Canada, a division of Malaysia’s state-owned Petronas which cancelled its $36-billion Pacific NorthWest LNG project in July.
The decision was difficult to make but “headwinds were too great” for the partnership to green light the West Coast megaproject, said Dennis Lawrence, vice-president of production for Progress, during a panel discussion at the Calgary Energy Roundtable on Wednesday.
Lawrence said delays meant the project missed its opportunity to enter the global LNG market when it had a good chance to thrive.
“We think it may be a bit of a wake-up call to us as an industry, to governments, to regulators within Canada that time is actually of utmost importance on these projects, that delays and long regulatory timelines can ultimately have an impact on whether projects go ahead or not,” he said.