Prior to Russia invading Ukraine in February 2022, European banks wouldn’t touch fossil fuel projects like liquefied natural gas and the International Energy Agency said no new major oil or gas field developments or large LNG projects would be needed beyond what was already in the development queue.
Over the past year, European banks have started financing fossil fuel projects, attendees at the LNG2023 conference this week in Vancouver heard, and the European Union in recent months has moved to designate both nuclear power and natural gas as sustainable and green. “Much of this demand will be in Asia, where China and several other emerging economies are looking to rely more heavily on gas as they switch away from coal," Wood Mackenzie said in its forecast.
During the pandemic, when demand for all fossil fuels fell, there was some question whether the demand would ever fully return. In B.C., there are five LNG projects of various sizes in various stages of development . They will need billions in loans and investments to get built.