Australian company ends Grassy Point LNG project

Woodside Energy Ltd. has silently withdrawn from its Grassy Point LNG project on the North Coast of B.C.

“In January 2018, Woodside elected not to renew its Sole Proponent Agreement for the Grassy Point LNG site on the north-west coast of British Columbia,” as stated Woodside Petroleum’s 2017 Annual Report released last month.

The liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal site was proposed 30km north of Prince Rupert, near Lax Kw’alaams. The Australian company began geotechnical surveys on Grassy Point in 2014.

In 2015, the National Energy Board gave the project a licence to export 20 million tonnes of LNG a year for up to 25 years. There wasn’t much progression on the project following the March 2016 open house.

This is the latest LNG project on the North Coast to withdraw interest. In Dec. 2017, WCC LNG announced it was closing its office on First Avenue in Prince Rupert due to current LNG market conditions and economic uncertainties. Previous to that project, Nexen Energy backed out of its Aurora LNG project on Digby Island in September.

Interest in the Kitimat LNG project still remains. The report mentions the Kitimat project as the one of the “most advanced LNG opportunities in Canada.” Woodside has a 50/50 joint venture in the project with Chevron Canada Ltd.

While Woodside states in its annual report that it’s “engaging governments to establish a clear, stable and competitive fiscal framework”, its project partner, Chevron Corp, may be less certain. A report from Reuters on March 5 states that Chevron is possibly looking to sell a minority stake in the Kitimat LNG project.

Chevron’s communications lead, Ray Lord, responded to Black Press Media’s query stating that “Chevron is not in a position to comment on commercial matters, rumours or speculation.”

Meanwhile, in Shell’s LNG Outlook 2018 the company is predicting a global supply shortage for LNG by mid-2020s unless new production projects come online soon.