Shell consortium gets nod for 25-year LNG export licence

The federal government has approved a 25-year export licence for shipping liquefied natural gas from a West Coast terminal proposed by aconsortium headed by Shell.

Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver says the approval for LNG Canada Development Inc. is a milestone inBritish Columbia's plans for a trillion-dollar LNG sector.

Flanked byEllis Ross, the chief of the Haisla Nationon B.C.'s North Coast, Oliver says global energy demand is expected to increase by 35 per cent by 2035, and Canada will be poised to take advantage.

The licence awarded to LNG Canadaa consortium of Shell, Korea Gas Corp., Mitsubishi Corp., and PetroChina International will allow the export of up to 24 million tonnes of LNG per year, the largest of three export licences awarded to date.

The LNG Canada terminal is one of five proposed for the B.C. coast, and theproject has yet to undergo an environmental assessment.

Plans to make the B.C. coast a global hub of LNG exports have not met the kind of opposition from environmental groups as seen by oil pipelineproposals such as Northern GatewayandKinder Morgan's TransMountain line.