VANCOUVER – B.C.’s premier is brushing aside a massive natural gas deal between China and Russia, insisting she’s not worried it will affect her province’s plans to develop a liquefied natural gas industry.
Premier Christy Clark has made the LNG industry her government’s central focus, and that plan relies almost entirely on producers selling their natural gas to markets in Asia.
Russia and China have reached a $400-billion, 30-year agreement for China to buy Russian natural gas, prompting questions about how the deal could affect Canada’s LNG plans.
But Clark says there will be enough demand for multiple countries to supply natural gas, and she insists B.C. will be competitive.
Clark says customers looking for natural gas want a trustworthy and dependable source, and she suggests Russia doesn’t offer that.
The Liberal government has set a goal of having one LNG plant up and running by 2015 and three in operation by 2020.