Malaysian state-owned oil and gas group Petronas plans to make a final investment decision (FID) on the proposed C$36bn (US$27bn) in April 2017.
The 12 Mt/year gas liquefaction project (option for a third train of 6 Mt/year) near Lelu island in British Columbia is developed by Petronas (62%), in partnership with Sinopec, Japex, Indian Oil Corporation (10%) each, China Huadian (5%) and Petroleum Brunei (3%). The project was approved by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) and the Canadian government in September 2016 after three years of regulatory review; the approval included 190 conditions, including a cap on CO2 emissions. In December 2014, Petronas and its partners decided to defer the FID, due to high development costs related to the pipeline (at this time US$21bn) and the facility (US$11bn, which must be reduced before any positive FID) and to uncertainties over the project's economic viability.
In case of a positive FID, operations could start as of 2020 (at the earliest).