Despite being the major backer of Canada’s only approved LNG project, Shell is looking to Australia to meet what it sees as growing natural gas demand in Southeast Asia.Speaking on the sidelines of an energy conference, Australian country chair Cecile wake told Reuters the company is expecting its domestic operations to fill what it sees as “surging” Asian demand from countries like the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Bangladesh by the end of the decade."We see ourselves competitively positioned to Asian markets. It is about maintaining that supply position, ensuring that we've got high utilization, high reliability of our LNG assets here," she told Reuters..In 2019, the company commissioned the first floating offshore LNG facility in the world, the Prelude, at a cost of USD$12 billion. It’s deck is longer than four soccer fields.It comes as Canadian government officials, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, question the business case for LNG in Canada.That’s despite the fact that the CAD$40 billion LNG Canada project is expected to be fully operational by the middle of next year..Earlier this month, the company began ‘conditioning’ new facilities at Kitimat, British Columbia in anticipation of a phased production start. The project is reportedly more than 90% complete.When fully operational the terminal will process up to 2 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of gas, or about 11% of Canada’s daily output. The company is considering a second phase which would double that total. A final investment decision is pending.Canada is the fifth-largest global gas producer, produced a record 18.8 bcfd in December, according to the the most recent data from the Canadian Energy Regulator.“The second this thing starts running is a historic moment for Canada, and it is when we start making money, so everybody is excited but we’re saying mid-2025 right now and it should be more precise as we move forward,” LNG Canada spokesperson Teresa Waddington told a public meeting in Kitimat last week.
