OTTAWA: Petronas said today that its plans to invest $11.4 billion in Canadian liquefied natural gas are dead and won’t be revived.
Canada had a huge head start over the US in LNG but environmental concerns crippled the process when prices were high. They continued to kill enthusiasm from investors along with lower prices. At the same time, the US reversed a ban on LNG exports and jumped into the race, then quickly surpassed Canada. It’s an embarrassing failure in a portfolio that was giftwrapped for Canada. Several other projects, including at $40 billion investment led by Royal Dutch Shell remains under consideration, along with other plans from Chevron and Exxon Mobil but they’re all beginning to look like longshots. I’ve ranted about this situation for years. This is the culmination of years of complete ineptitude from the province, the federal government and voters.
