Buyers are attracted to Shell’s LNG Canada project because it uses the Canadian Alberta Energy Company (AECO) price index as a benchmark, which is lower than the Henry Hub price in the U.S., the company’s chief executive said on Tuesday.
“What is particularly attractive about LNG Canada in today’s world, retrospectively, is the AECO indexation,” Shell CEO Wael Sawan said at the Energy Asia conference, adding that there will be more supply of AECO gas at lower prices.
“And so that differential between AECO and Henry Hub, not to mention the proximity to Asia, all of that makes it a particularly attractive project, and it will be one of the lowest carbon projects anywhere in the world,” he said.
The AECO Storage Hub price on Monday was at 96.6 Canadian cents (71.4 U.S. cents) per million British thermal units, according to data from SNL Financial. That compares with a Henry Hub futures price of $3.746 per MMBtu.
The LNG Canada project, the country’s first LNG export facility, is expected to produce 14 million metric tons per annum (MTPA) for export. The plant is expected to produce first LNG this month.
LNG Canada is a joint venture of Shell, Petronas, PetroChina, Mitsubishi Corporation and Korea Gas.
(Reporting by Florence Tan and Ashley Tang, Writing by Emily Chow; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Christian Schmollinger)