Well over 20 LNG projects are being touted on Canada's east and west coasts, although all for the moment remain at the starting gate, paralyzed by low commodity prices, weak demand growth and massive corporate spending cuts. But there's little doubt which side of the country the government favors to pioneer the country's LNG export industry — British Columbia beats Nova Scotia hands down. A couple of big projects on Canada's Pacific coast could provide up to 100,000 jobs and pump C$30 billion (US$21 billion) of revenues into government coffers, while creating a giant upstream gas industry in northeast British Columbia and massive pipeline infrastructure to get stranded gas to the coast (WGI Feb.25' 15). By contrast, the pair of export projects planned on Nova Scotia's northern Canso Strait would probably serve only as way stations for shale gas exports from the US Northeast. While lots of jobs would be created in the economically challenged province during the construction stage, the Bear Head LNG and Pieridae Energy projects would probably have just a couple of dozen permanent employees each.
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