British Columbia said talks with Petroliam Nasional Bhd are progressing as the Canadian province plans to unveil a tax regime for the liquefied natural gas industry by the end of October.
Discussions are progressing with the Malaysian state oil company that’s proposing a C$10 billion (US$8.9 billion) LNG development on the province’s Pacific Coast, Jim Hopkins, an assistant deputy minister at the B.C. finance ministry, said in New York today.
“The conversations with Petronas have actually been going very well,” Hopkins said at the Bloomberg Canadian Fixed Income Conference. Legislation is expected to be introduced by the end of next month, Jamie Edwardson, a spokesman for B.C.’s Ministry of Finance, said in an e-mail.
Petronas is among global energy producers pressing British Columbia and the government of Canada for financial terms that would boost the attractiveness of developing gas reserves and gas-shipping terminals to meet rising demand for the fuel in Asian markets.
Petronas president and chief executive officer Tan Sri Shamsul Azhar Abbas, in comments published by the Financial Times last week, threatened to call off the Pacific NorthWest project because of regulatory delays, a lack of incentives and a proposal by the provincial government to impose an LNG tax.
There are 18 groups considering investments in LNG projects in B.C., while none has made a decision, Hopkins said at the event. He said they have “serious interest” as they spend hundreds of millions of dollars in feasibility studies.-- Bloomberg