30 October 2014, News Wires – UK gas producer BG Group is reportedly pushing back its time line to build a proposed liquefied natural gas export terminal on Canada’s Pacific coast into the next decade.
BG Canada president Madeline Whitaker told the Wall Street Journal in an interview that the company has re-assessed its goal of getting a C$16 billion ($14.2 billion) facility built at Ridley Island near Prince Rupert, British Columbia, by 2020.
A BG regulatory filing had said the company plans to start construction in 2016. However, that no longer looks feasible, Whitaker said.
“We’d always said (construction would begin) as early as 2016, but we now recognise it’ll likely be later, with commercial operations likely beginning early in the next decade,” shetold the Journal.
That echoed comments made earlier on Tuesday by interim executive chairman Andrew Gould who said BG is “pausing on Prince Rupert to see how the market evolves”.
“We will continue to work on the project but not at the same rhythm as perhaps we were working in 2014,” he said.
The BG facility is one of 18 proposed export terminals, as gas producers look to places like Asia to sell their product as higher prices than can be fetched in North America.
Whitaker said the delay resulted from shifting market conditions, including a flood of LNG expected to hit global markets from places such as the US.
Other factors such as high construction and operational costs have also raised concerns about the viability of some of the projects.
– Upstream
