ExxonMobil Drops Canadian LNG Plans

Affiliates of US super-major ExxonMobil revealed December 19 they have withdrawn their 30mn metric tons/year WCC LNG Project near Prince Rupert, on BC’s northern coast, from a provincial environmental review process, effectively ending the project.

In a December 5 letter to Nathan Braun, executive project director with the oil and gas sector of the BC Environmental Assessment Office (EAO), Scott Pinhey, vice-president of WCC LNG Project, requested that, “as per recent discussions”, the project be withdrawn from the EAO’s existing environmental assessment process. A similar request was also to be made to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA), Pinhey’s letter said.

WCC LNG Project is a Canadian corporation owned by ExxonMobil Canada and Imperial Oil, affiliates of US-based ExxonMobil. Consisting of up to five barge-mounted liquefaction units each rated at 6mn mt/yr, the project was to have been located at Tulk Inlet, within the corporate limits of Prince Rupert.

A notice posted on the project’s website on December 19 advised of the withdrawal: “After careful review, ExxonMobil Canada Ltd. and Imperial Oil Resources Ltd. have withdrawn the WCC LNG Project from the BC environmental assessment process.” No further reasons for the withdrawal were provided.

In 2015, acting on a request from then-BC environment minister Mary Polak to former federal environment minister Leona Aglukkaq, the project was moved under the CEAA’s substitute environment assessment process, allowing the EAO to conduct consultations with affected indigenous groups.

On December 18, Braun advised the CEAA it had approved WCC LNG’s request to withdraw the project from the environmental assessment process. “The EAO will therefore no longer be undertaking the substituted environmental assessment, as was agreed to by the former federal minister of environment.”