bcbusiness.ca september 2015 BCBusiness 31
ity investors. At an internal transfer price of $1.74 per
cubic metre—the price derived after deducting the
costs of bringing the gas from field to market—Snohovit
is exporting more than $12 billion of
LNG annually (and
that doesn't include exports of the byproducts liquid
petroleum gas and condensate, or light oil). So far it is
Norway's, and also Europe's, only foray into the global
LNG market—though the Scandinavian country of some
5.1 million people has been shipping oil and piping natu-
ral gas throughout Europe since oil was first discovered
on the North Sea continental shelf in the 1960s. Early
on, political leaders in Oslo made critical decisions
regarding state control, regulation and compensation
for development of its oil and gas resources, setting the
tone that helped transform a relatively impoverished
post-Second World War Norway into one of the world's
richest countries. As British Columbia attempts to enter
the
LNG market, a town such as Hammerfest—about the
same size as Kitimat, another
LNG hopeful—offers a
glimpse into what is this province's theoretical future.
NORTHERN VIEW
The Snohovit LNG
plant in Hammerfest,
Norway, could be a
model for B.C.
