Total eyes more projects in booming Australia

MONTREAL – Total SA is pressing its partner Suncor Energy Corp. to take a final investment decision on the Fort Hills project before the end of the year, according to its chairman.

Woodside Petroleum Ltd., Australia’s second-largest oil and gas producer, is looking to make investments of about $5 billion in projects globally as development costs at home remain high.

Chevron Corp.’s entry into Canada’s liquefied natural gas space could be the boost the sector needs to kick it into serious competition with Australia, the dominant supplier of chilled natural gas to Asian markets. Chevron Canada Ltd. is taking over the assets of EOG Resources Canada Inc. and Encana Corp. in a project led by Apache Corp. The development had been stuck in the planning stages for a year, even though the partners secured an export licence in October 2011. Chevron is expected to bring its global LNG expertise to bear to get the project off the ground.

VANCOUVER • Japan is prepared to invest billions directly in natural gas infrastructure in Western Canada as part of a plan to secure massive supplies of liquefied natural gas to replace nuclear power, a top government advisor said Thursday. The plan, a new model for Japan, could intensify the race by Asian countries to lock down Western Canada’s energy resources and infrastructure, which so far has been led by China.

VANCOUVER — The B.C. government signed an “updated” benefits agreement with a group of First Nations on Monday, one they hope will quell opposition to one of the many liquefied natural gas projects planned for the province’s north. B.C. Premier Christy Clark announced the $32-million deal with 15 First Nations along the route of the proposed Pacific Trails pipeline as she wooed industry investment at a first-ever international conference on LNG opportunities in B.C.

Exxon Mobil and BHP Billiton are planning to build the world’s largest floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) processing and export plant off the northwestern shore of Australia, despite growing concerns about the cost competitiveness of the country’s LNG projects. At around half a kilometre (0.3 miles) long, the vessel would be nearly as long as five football fields laid end-to-end and would be the largest floating facility in the world.

U.S. companies hoping to export natural gas are frustrated by lengthy delays and rule changes as they await U.S. Department of Energy approval of their applications and may turn to the courts to speed up the process. Both the slow pace of decisions on applications to ship U.S. liquefied natural gas abroad and the process for making those decisions could be challenged, legal sources say.

VICTORIA — Premier Christy Clark says her government’s plan to export liquefied natural gas to Asia is British Columbia’s economic equivalent to Alberta’s oilsands. In a year-end interview with The Canadian Press, Clark said B.C.’s LNG development ambitions will transform the economy, but the province must act quickly before the opportunity evaporates like gas into the atmosphere.