Oil and natural gas company Birchcliff Energy Ltd. is trying to expand its global assets as domestic oil prices fall.
The Calgary, Alta.-based company is part of Rockies LNG Partners, a group of natural gas producers involved in the Ksi Lisims liquefied natural gas (LNG) project. It’s operations are almost exclusively domestic with three gas plants in the Montney/Doig formation in Grande Prairie.
“Our play as an intermediate-size producer is to be part of a larger consortium that can then move our gas in the future through that project and access world pricing,” Chris Carlsen, president and CEO told BNN Bloomberg in a Thursday interview. “But today we don’t have access to world pricing ourselves.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney recommended the project Thursday as part of the second phase of major projects to be fast-tracked under his administration.
The Major Projects Office (MPO), led by the directors of the Trans Mountain Corporation, was launched in August to streamline and expedite regulatory approvals for recommended projects.
The Canadian natural gas market, specifically at the AECO hub in Alberta has caused oil prices to fall due to an oversupply of production combined with lower-than-average domestic demand from a warmer winter prompting weak demand for heating purposes.
The oversupply worsened by seasonal pipeline maintenance while storage facilities filled up. Birchcliff was ahead of the curve selling its gas to the United States as part of its market diversification strategy. It now plans to take on the world.
“From our point of view, the benefit for us was really; we talked about that market diversification, having the majority of our gas being sold in stronger markets, along with, I would say, our focus on developing some of our more liquids rich part of our asset,” said Carlsen.
Ksi Lisims LNG, pronounced s’lisims, means “from the Nass River” in the Nisga’a language. It is a proposed 12-million-tonne-per-year LNG project near Prince Rupert in British Columbia.
The inclusion of Ksi Lisims in the federal government’s list of major projects aligns with Carney’s economic strategy to boost the Canadian economy and expand trade diversification while Birchcliff’s involvement enables the company to reach international markets thereby mitigating exposure to weak local prices in Alberta.
The project is a joint venture between the Nisga’a Lisims Government, Rockies LNG and Western LNG LLC.
The project was approved by the B.C. government in September but faces two separate legal challenges by two First Nations in Northwest B.C. — the Lax Kw’alaams Band and the Metlakatla First Nation.
“I can’t comment on that, but I think from our point of view the project has great benefit to Canada to sell our gas and our resources overseas and provide the world what it needs, which is responsible, clean, low cost energy,” said Carlsen. “I think as Canadians, it’s a great piece of business.”