[Stingray2004]

Some further corroboration today about Imperial Oil's future intentions with its parent ExxonMobil about westcoast lng plans:

Imperial Oil Planning LNG Export Business From West Coast

Claudia Cattaneo
Financial Post
Dec 10, 2012 2:59 PM ET

TORONTO • Imperial Oil Ltd. and its parent, Exxon Mobil Corp., are in the early stages of planning a liquefied natural gas export business from Canada’s West Coast, Imperial president and CEO Bruce March said Monday.

The new business would build on the $3.1-billion acquisition by the two companies of natural gas producer Celtic Exploration Ltd., as well as gas holdings they already own in Western Alberta and in the Horn River shale gas play in British Columbia.

“Celtic has done a wonderful job of acquiring those leases and putting together production. We are anxious to scale up operations … to develop resources faster than Celtic,” Mr. March said at an investment conference here organized by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

“We are in the very early stages of looking at LNG off the B.C. coast and Celtic reserves would be underpinning a potential LNG strategy,” he said.

Mr. March said the two companies are not in a rush and are still “looking at what is available” to put together the strategy as well as how much it would cost.

Still, they are competing with a growing number of global players that have picked the British Columbia coast to build integrated businesses involving producing gas from large gas deposits in Western Canada, piping it to the coast, liquefying it so it can be loaded onto tankers, and exporting it to markets in Asia.

The federal government approved last Friday the $6-billion takeover of Progress Energy Resources Corp. by Malaysia’s Petronas, which is working on a competing plan involving building an $11-billion LNG plant near Prince Rupert.

Exxon was rumored to have bid for Progress, but was outbid by Petronas, Malaysia’s state-owned company.

A consortium led by Royal Dutch Shell PLC, and others are also working on West Coast LNG strategies.

Mr. March said Exxon Mobil is a big player in the global LNG business and knows who the customers are.

But Western Canada presents some “built in challenges” and “at this stage we are working through all these.”

http://business.financialpost.com/20...om-west-coast/