Another liquefied natural gas project is off the table in British Columbia, with the announcement that China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) is pulling the plug on its Aurora LNG project at Digby Island, west of Prince Rupert.
“Over the past four years, Aurora LNG has been conducting a thorough feasibility study on liquefying and shipping LNG from the northwest coast of British Columbia to Asian markets,” CNOOC and its consortium partners said in a release through Calgary-based Nexen, a CNOOC subsidiary. That analysis “determined that the current macro-economic environment does not currently support the partners’ vision of developing a large LNG business” at the site.
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“While disappointed in this outcome, Aurora LNG is proud of its work in northwest British Columbia over the past three years and the relationships it has built with local community members, Indigenous groups, stakeholders, and government,” the release stated. “The partners are committed to a responsible and orderly conclusion of their activities in the Prince Rupert region.”
The Globe notes that more than 20 LNG projects have been proposed in B.C. in recent years (with strong encouragement and incentives from the former Christy Clark government). But “with the world awash in LNG supplies, low prices in Asia for the fuel have rendered most B.C. LNG proposals uneconomic.”
