Editor’s note: The report below is an updated version of the original report published in March 2017. Since this report was first published, four BC liquefied natural gas projects have been cancelled. Sixteen LNG proposals are still standing—but most of them are standing still.
Over the past few years, Oregon and Washington fended off several proposals to build enormous fracked fuel and petrochemical terminals on their respective coasts. But just to the north, British Columbia’s political leaders took the opposite tack, sending out a siren song to attract liquefied natural gas (LNG) investors to the province’s western shores.
The invitation lured would-be LNG exporters with the promise of fossil-fuel-friendly policies and cheap fracked gas from fossil fuel basins in northeast BC. Oil and gas companies the world over answered the call, proposing nearly two dozen LNG export facilities designed to ship the liquefied fossil fuel to Asia.
Global LNG prices collapsed shortly after the LNG “gold rush” began, dashing the hopes for profitable BC LNG exports. Some proposals have already closed up shop, but sixteen remain. The projects are clustered in four locations: the Salish Sea, Kitimat, Prince Rupert, and Kitsault. Most of the projects would require new pipelines to move gas from the distant Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Northeastern BC, raising concerns that they would undermine the interests of numerous BC First Nations. Some of the projects have also run into public opposition over concerns that they would increase emissions and tanker traffic, and harm critical salmon habitat.
This revised Sightline report, Mapping BC’s LNG Proposals, details the sixteen active BC LNG proposals and offers an overview of each project’s finances, location, export plans, and proposed pipeline infrastructure.
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