Chevron ready to unload B.C. gas facility

Chevron Canada has attracted only minimal interest in its plan for selling British Columbia’s only large-scale natural gas storage facility.

The Aitken Creek plant, which has a working capacity of 71 million cubic feet per day and could be expanded by 40 percent, carries an estimated price tag of about C$1 billion and is estimated to process gas worth C$420 million a year.

Several candidates have been touted as likely bidders, but only Alberta-based Moneta Energy, formed recently with the specific intention of acquiring the assets in northeastern B.C., has openly declared its intentions.

Moneta founder Rex Kary told the Vancouver Sun the company is motivated by a “fundamental belief that North America is depleting its natural gas reserves.”

“There is not as much gas that can be delivered as easily as several years ago, yet the demand is increasing. What’s starting to happen is that the volatility in price, the price difference between summer and winter, is becoming greater,” he said.

To prepare for a sale, Chevron has asked the British Columbia Utilities Commission to establish a separate company to run Aitken Creek, opening the way to a deal.

So far, only Terasen Gas and the B.C. Old Age Pensioners have filed written comments on the planned disposal and neither opposed the arrangement.

Canada’s National Energy Board has commented that gas storage in B.C., the fastest growing gas-producing province in Canada, is “extremely limited,” consisting of Aitken Creek and a small liquefied natural gas plant in the Vancouver area.

—Gary Park