November 11th set as date for Petronas and Provincial Government to meet on Pacific NorthWest LNG

With yesterday's announcement of delays into the next decade for the BG Group's Prince Rupert LNG project, all of those watching developments on the LNG files of the Northwest now turn their attention to the Pacific Northwest LNG proposal and a November 11th meeting in Malaysia.

That is the date that has been set up for the next set of discussions between officials from the British Columbia Government and Petronas executives, with the Rakyat Post, a Malaysian newspaper speculating as to whether that date is a deadline for the project.

Yesterday's developments regarding BG would seem to have caught the attention of the Malaysian press, which provided a review of the decision from the British energy giant to slow down its development plans.

Malaysians have been following the progress of the Petronas plans through their media, most recently to make note of the ongoing Environmental process of the project, highlighting the focus of how the Lelu Island Terminal proposal may be derailed over protection of wild salmon.

For it's part the Province continues to express confidence on their LNG plans, observing that they believe the November 11th meeting is a positive step.

Minister Rich Coleman at the
Opening of the PacificNorthwest
LNG offices in  December 2013

Speaking yesterday, as part of his reaction to the BG Gas decision, Rich Coleman the province's Minister of Natural Gas Development touched on the Pacific NorthWest LNG proposal.

Going so far a to suggest "that we wouldn't be asked to go to Malaysia to sit down with the board and the CEO on a one-to-one basis if we weren't getting somewhere in our project development agreements, which we are."

The November 11th meeting would appear to be an extension of the previous deadline of October 31st which was issued by Petronas on October 6th.

In late September the Malaysian energy company put a cloud over the UBCM gathering in Whistler when it expressed concerns over issues related to taxation and environmental timelines for the project.  Suggesting at the time that there was a possibility that they could delay their project for up to fifteen years.

The BC Government will get the update on that dire warning next month, and there will be no greater interested observers awaiting the news than those living on the North Coast, whether they are pro-LNG development or against LNG development.

You can review our past items related to the Pacific NorthWest LNG project from our archive page here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review