$36 billion announced for LNG and pipeline

Prime Ministers Najib Rezak and Stephen Harper
Photo MOHD RASFAN , AFP/Getty Images

On Sunday, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Rezak announced Petronas, the state company in his country, will spend $36-billion over about 30 years on various LNG efforts focused on B.C., including $11-billion for a proposed LNG export plant and $5-billion for a provincial pipeline.
Mr. Najib announced the investment during a news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper ahead of the two leaders departing for the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Indonesia.
“We’re pretty enthused. It may put to bed some of the comments that people say that we’re pursuing a pipe dream,” Rich Coleman told a news conference on Monday to set the stage for a tour to South Korea, China and Malaysia promoting B.C.’s LNG sector. Continued on next page
“Look, we view the Petronas investments very positively and all the indications I have is that Petronas is looking at further investment,” said the prime minister.
“The government of Canada is very excited about that possibility, as are all those I’ve talked to in the energy sector.”
Mr. Coleman was reserved in his remarks on the news, saying he was pleased, but also cautious in noting the incremental nature of the investment as a series of pieces. “Petronas’ announcement was pretty broad,” he said said detailed talks are under way with the sector to get to a “sweet spot” between the industry’s needs and something that works for B.C.’s interests.
“We’re very close to that sweet spot,” he said, noting he expected that details will be released in November.
“We’re going to have to lock it down with some complex legislation to make sure people know there is some certainty around their investment in British Columbia so someone can’t come in and arbitrarily change it after you have made billions of dollars in investment in British Columbia.”
Mr. Coleman noted that he met a few months ago in Victoria with Petronas’s CEO and comptroller to talk about the company’s interest in B.C.
“They told me they were bullish on British Columbia,” he said. “The big thing was also certainty. They wanted to know there would be some vehicle that said somebody is not going to change the rules of the game after they start to spend billions of dollars.

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