Malaysia's Petronas to Invest $20 Billion in Canadian LNG Export Terminal

---

Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The growing Asian gas market is a major target for output from an LNG export terminal complex located on Lelu Island, in the Port Edward district of British Columbia. The project is planned by Malaysian state-controlled oil company Petronas (Kuala Lumpur).

Arif Mahmood, Petronas' vice president of corporate planning, said that the company will invest $9 billion and $11 billion to construct two liquefaction plants, plus another $5 billion in a 750-kilometer pipeline to be built byTransCanada (NYSE:TRP) (Calgary, Alberta). The pipeline will transport gas produced by Progress Energy (Calgary) from British Columbia's Monterey region and from northwest Alberta. Additional investments will be made to develop upstream gas reserves. Petronas acquired Progress Energy for $5.2 billion in December 2012.

There is space available at the site to build a third train, which would increase total output to about 18 million tons annually. Petronas is also negotiating to sell 50% of the project, on which a final investment decision is due before the end of 2014.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, and eight offices outside of North America, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.