Petronas Malaysia to build $35B LNG Plant in Canada

Petronas Malaysia is building CAD$ LNG Project in CanadaImage credit: Instagram

Malaysian national oil company, Petronas, will be spending $35 billion for its liquid natural gas (LNG) project in Canada.


Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced the Petronas project during a joint conference with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Sunday, October 6, 2013.

Almost a year ago, Ottawa tried to block the Petronas $5.5 billion purchase of Canadia's Progress Energy Resources. However, Harper reversed the decision two months later citing Canada's openness to foreign investment.

According to Najib, Petronas will shell out about CAD $36 billion to build "all the facilities upstream including investment in a pipeline." Najib considers the latest Petronas investment as the "largest foreign direct investment in Canada by any country".

Malaysia's Prime Minister added that "gargantuan investment will be mutually beneficial because it will open up Canadian energy to new markets, principally East Asia."

In a statement, Harper assures its citizens that the country's total FDI "has continued to increase over the past year and has increased very rapidly. I'm told it's up by almost a third".

Harper explained that they "view the Petronas investments very positively and all the indications I have is that Petronas is looking at further investments. Obviously our policy involves the use of discretion when it comes to state-owned enterprise."