LNG back on Canada’s Arctic agenda with deal

A little-noticed deal and unannounced visit to Canada’s northern frontier have added weight to what might otherwise have been viewed as a long-shot – liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to Asia

Korea Gas (Kogas) is the catalyst for an emerging idea to convert Arctic gas into LNG for shipment from the hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk on the Beaufort Sea. Interest was stirred in December, when South Korean Kogas reached a C$30 million ($31.3 million) agreement with MGM Energy, the smallest and in recent years only explorer in the Canadian Arctic, for one-third of the local firm’s 60% working interest in the Umiak discovery on the Mackenzie Delta. ConocoPhillips owns the remaining 40%. Two Umiak wells, with an estimated 265 billion cubic feet (cf) of resources, have been granted a significant-discovery licence, based on proof from the owners that the finds could sustain long-term commercial prod