Petronas warns of 10 to 15 year delay on LNG development

Shamsal Abbas | BCBusiness
Province of B.C.

Malaysian petro-giant ratchets up public pressure on B.C. government in search of cost cuts on LNG project

B.C.’s LNG tax regime and slow regulatory pace have Petronas mulling its multi-billion Northwest LNG terminal proposal, said company CEO Shamsul Azhar Abbas in a statement released Friday.

While “encouraged” by his meetings with Premier Christy Clark and natural gas minister Rick Coleman last week in Vancouver, Abbas reitierated his position that ” additional taxes and high cost environment will negatively impact the project’s economic viability and competitiveness.”

A plan to “support project competitiveness” emerged from last week’s meetings, said Abbas, which he would like to see tabled before the end of October.

“Without material cost reduction efforts we’ll have a tough time reaching a positive final investment decision by mid-December,” said Abbas. “The next few weeks will be critical in ensuring that commitments made during the last meeting will be followed through.”

The premier has yet to say what those measures are, stating in a press conference last week that it would be more productive if discussions over the project moved out of the public and behind closed doors.