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Vol. 19, No. 39 Week of September 28, 2014
Providing coverage of Alaska and northern Canada's oil and gas industry

Spotlight on taxes, jobs

Backers of 4 largest British Columbia LNG projects tell legislators what’s needed

Gary Park

For Petroleum News

Taxes and jobs are rated as needing urgent attention if LNG proponents in British Columbia decide within the next couple of years to go ahead with their plans.

An industry alliance representing backers of the four largest projects and a government-appointed jobs training agency have hammered home their concerns, even though it is far from certain that any of the LNG ventures will get corporate sanctioning.

A newly establish British Columbia LNG Developers Alliance has made its case to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance that it wants LNG liquefaction plants and terminals treated as manufacturing operations to qualify for tax concessions.

The alliance said it is in Canada’s interest to facilitate LNG projects to open the path for exporting Canadian energy resources to markets beyond the United States.

Under existing rules, LNG export facilities are listed as distribution businesses that qualify for less favorable tax treatment.

The alliance’s four members are Chevron-operated Kitimat LNG, Pacific NorthWest LNG operated by Malaysia’s Petronas, Shell Canada’s LNG Canada venture and Prince Rupert LNG led by the United Kingdom’s BG Group.

Expanded training

Separately, the British Columbia government’s Industry Training Authority said it plans to expand training opportunities in the province’s north and in aboriginal communities where the largest LNG proposals are concentrated to turn out about 20,000 skilled workers to build up to five LNG operations.

Marvin Odum, president of Shell Oil, has said British Columbia’s ability to provide a skilled workforce ranks second among his company’s priority issues.

Jobs Minister Shirley Bond said the agency’s plan provides a “clear” approach to meeting her government’s commitment to align trade with the needs of the LNG sector.

The trades in greatest need are listed as welders, steamfitters and pipefitters, carpenters and heavy equipment operators.

Lance Mortlock, a partner with the accounting and consulting firm of Ernst & Young, said the province should not overlook the “greatest labor supply demand” for new gas-drilling crews and gas-field service workers, noting that Alberta and Saskatchewan are recruiting at a feverish pace in those sectors to turn the tide on a rapidly aging labor pool.



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