Compared to the nearby $18 billion LNG Canada complex on which it will piggyback, the $5.5 billion Cedar LNG project in Kitimat is small.
“Japan is very interested in Canadian LNG,” said Shannon Joseph, chair of Energy for a Secure Future. “They’re interested in it from an energy security standpoint, but they’re also interested in it from an environmental standpoint. Japan is looking at us and looking at what we’re going to export and getting in on it.”
“When you consider Indigenous communities, they’re not willing to take on any risk. They’re terrified of that risk aspect. And I think what we’ve been able to display is that it can be done.” Forty per cent of the project will be financed through equity investments , and 60 per cent through debt financing.
He suggested senior governments may need to backstop the project, and one source of funding may be the federal government’s new $5 billion Indigenous loan guarantee program. “LNG demand from southeast Asia is going to provide substantial growth and market for Cedar for the long term. I don’t expect they will have trouble finding buyers willing to enter into long-term contracts that would backstop the ability to enter into favourable financing agreements.”