Alberta is creating a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Investment Team to work directly with industry on reducing barriers for securing final investment decisions on export projects that will increase the value of Alberta’s natural gas resources.
“Whether we’re talking about oil or natural gas, the details are different but the story is the same,” says Margaret McCuaig-Boyd, minister of energy.“Albertans are getting pennies on the dollar because we can’t get our resources to international markets, and our biggest customer has become our biggest competitor. We can’t sit on the fence like previous governments did. We must take the bull by the horns and fight for the full value of our natural gas.”
The announcement responds to a key recommendation of Alberta’s Natural Gas Advisory Panel, appointed in May 2018 to provide advice to the Minister of Energy on short- and medium-term actions Alberta can take to address persistently undervalued natural gas and extreme price volatility due to transmission, storage and market access challenges.
The LNG Investment Team is part of a broader made-in-Alberta oil and gas strategy that includes the aggressive expansion of energy upgrading opportunities within the province as the government takes short-term action to address the oil price differential crisis.
The investment team brings diverse experience and knowledge to this important work:
- Greg Stringham of GS3 Strategies
- John Carruthers of the University of Calgary School of Public Policy
They will be meeting one-on-one with industry leaders to understand their needs and advise government on steps to advance final investment decisions on LNG projects. They will report back to the Minister of Energy in early 2019.
The appointment of the investment team follows the release of a report from the government’s Natural Gas Advisory Panel, Roadmap to Recovery: Reviving Alberta’s Natural Gas Industry.
The report outlines 48 technical and specific recommendations to grow the natural gas sector, including ways to improve pipeline capacity, regulatory standards and metrics, time frames for project approvals, transparency and accountability, and setting a vision for Canada’s natural gas industry. Government has accepted the report and will continue to consult with industry on priorities going forward.
