CNOOC axes Aurora LNG project in Canada

China’s CNOOC Ltd and Inpex of Japan have cancelled a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project planned for Canada’s British Columbia.

The project called Aurora LNG planned for Digsby Island in the Prince Rupert region would have had the capacity to export 24 million tonnes of the chilled fuel per year.

Nexen Energy, the developer of the project and the Canadian a unit of CNOOC, said in a statement on Thursday that the project partners have made the strategic decision to end the Aurora LNG feasibility study and will cease all investigation activity.

Through Nexen, CNOOC owns 60 percent of Aurora LNG. CNOOC acquired Nexen for $15.1 billion back in 2012.

Over the past four years, Aurora LNG has been conducting a feasibility study on liquefying and shipping LNG from the northwest coast of British Columbia to Asian markets, the statement noted.

Through this feasibility study, Aurora LNG “has determined that the current macro-economic environment does not currently support the partners’ vision of developing a large LNG business at the proposed Digby Island site.”

Upstream operations from the project partners’ Horn River natural gas assets in northeast British Columbia will continue, and the partners will also “monitor the North American gas market to evaluate future upstream and downstream investments according to market conditions,” the statement said.

Worth mentioning, there have been more than 20 LNG export projects planned for British Columbia in recent years. However, only Woodfibre LNG has been given the green light by its developers.

LNG World News Staff