Great article but the author missed three important points. First, the Canadian Energy Research Institute, associated with the University of Calgary, published a 2018 report which examined the economic feasibility of the Canadian LNG industry. They found that LNG prices would need to be between $9.50 and $11.50 per mmbtu in order for Canadian LNG to be profitable. As mentioned, current LNG prices are below $3.00 per mmbtu. Secondly, the virus scare is just a bump in the road - the real issues driving low LNG prices is a massive glut in natural gas supply as a result of the shale boom, horizontal drilling and fracking compounded by low oil prices. And analysts are not predicting significant improvements in either gas supply or oil prices in the absence of a major world armed conflict. Finally, in late 2019, Chevron, one of the world's largest oil and natural gas companies, announced it was abandoning its proposed Kitimat LNG plant and in January 2020 it announced it announced a $1.6 billion write-off against its failed Kitimat LNG project. All of these factors, and others, lead me to conclude that LNG Canada/Coastal GasLink will likely fail and not a single boat load of LNG will be shipped from Kitimat. And it will be economics, not the Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs or environmentalists
Who will be on the hook if the largest private-sector investment project in Canadian history hits the rocks?
The LNG Canada plant and Coastal GasLink pipeline are being built at a time when a glut of LNG "is a major recipe for disaster", according to one analyst
The news cycle over the past two weeks has been dominated by acts of civil disobedience by supporters of Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs,
Their goal, by and large, has been to uphold the hereditary chiefs' authority over their unceded territory by thwarting a pipeline project.
But not much has been said about who will be left holding the bag if the Coastal GasLink pipeline ends up being cancelled.
B.C. taxpayers had better hope that Premier John Horgan's eagerness to woo this investment hasn't made them financially liable in any way.
That's because if this pipeline is halted, the corporation's lawyers will likely be examining whether the province misled investors.
As just one example, they could allege in court that the province
falsely asserted legal authority to approve a pipeline on lands where Aboriginal title was not extinguished.
At a cost of $6.6 billion, the Coastal GasLink project is expected to deliver returns for decades to come to its investors—TC Energy, KKR, and Alberta Investment Management Corporation.
If that income is suddenly cut off—due to demonstrations or due to market conditions or due to a political change of heart, or a combination of all three—it could turn into a legal quagmire.
That pain for provincial taxpayers could conceivably be multiplied several times if the LNG Canada plant, which will receive natural gas through the pipeline, is also kiboshed.
More:
https://www.straight.com/news/13619...ctor-investment-project-canadian-history-hits