JBIC to Finance Shale Gas Project in Canada

The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) signed yesterday a loan agreement totaling up to 650 million Canadian dollars (JBIC portion) with Cutbank Dawson Gas Resources Ltd. (CDGR), a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) in Canada.

The loan is cofinanced with The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd. and Mizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd.

This loan will finance capital investments required of CDGR in connection with its subscription of 40% interest in a partnership which owns the shale gas assets in the Montney land in British Columbia, plus additional potential lands tapping the Cadomin and Doig geological formations. Encana Corporation, Canada’s largest natural gas producer, is the operator and managing partner of this partnership.

Canada is endowed with vast shale gas reserves and has great potential as a new natural gas supplier for the markets in the Asia-Pacific region. The participation of MC in this project to secure gas interests in North America will contribute to Japan’s energy security by diversifying the natural gas supply sources and easing the demand-supply balance in the Asian liquefied natural gas (LNG) markets.

MC is also planning to produce LNG in its production facilities that are going to be built on the western coast of British Columbia by using the natural gas produced from this shale gas project and the shale gas project in the Cordova Embayment, and to export the output to Japan and the Asian region. This project is expected to make Canada, which is politically stable and a relatively short distance from Japan, a new LNG supply source, thereby contributing to the diversification of Japan’s LNG supply sources.

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LNG World News Staff, August 14, 2012