Berkshire Hathaway has pulled out of a proposed large investment in the liquid natural gas pipeline near Quebec’s Saguenay port. Warren Buffetts’s investment company had been planning to invest $4 billion in the project.
The $9.5 billion LNG project is meant to be built about 230 kilometers northeast of Quebec City, according to CBC News. The marine terminal will be used to ship LNG overseas from the Saguenay port.
GNL Quebec’s head of communication Stephanie Fortin previously noted that the company had lost a major potential investor, but did not specify who.
She said that the reason the investor backed out was due to the “current Canadian political context.”
Fortin added that foreign investors are becoming nervous because of the “instability” in the country, caused by the ongoing anti-pipeline blockades.
Fortin said that the project will move forward and no job losses are projected in the immediate future. Fortin noted that the loss will leave a big impact.
The LNG project will involve the building of a pipeline from Northern Ontario to Saguenay. It will be 782 kilometers and used to bring natural gas from the west.
Eleven million tonnes of LNG is expected to be exported per year.
Saguenay’s deputy mayor Michel Potvin told Radio-Canada that losing the investment will be a major setback.
“It’s concerning when we talk about an investor putting in $4 billion of $9 billion. It’s clear that Mr. Buffet has good reasons. We’re seeing the rail crisis — that’s surely one of the reasons.”
Potvin said that he understands Buffett’s decision given that the Coastal GasLink pipeline is facing major hurdles in BC.
The pipeline is meant to be built on Innu territory, and some members of that community have shown opposition to the LNG project in Quebec.
“It takes the acceptance of Indigenous people,” said Potvin. “In our head, here in Saguenay, we thought we had it. We thought it was accepted by the people. What we’re seeing is that actually nothing is certain.”
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Anyone protesting pipelines should have natural gas cut off to their home, or more likely their apartment.
Or their parent’s basement.
They’re probably burning wood and doing more harm to themselves and the environment than the pipeline ever will.
Hey they are not living mud huts with no chimney ! There is nothing wrong with burning wood as long as it is plentiful and their population is small.
What is really happening is Tides foundation is very active in Canada and buying their opposition and importing protesters to protest “on their behalf”.
The official recognised community leaders had already agreed. This is a rearguard action by OUTSIDERS, not natives.
Keep following the money.
Tides Foundation is Soros- funded, but who is behind Soros? He has accepted his role as the public face of so much disruption in what remains of the free world. He has his partnerships. It’s all about the money.
Tides foundation is just one of many NGOs which have a common thread; they are funded by very rich people and use similar rhetoric and tactics as smokescreens, hiding their efforts to increase their wealth and power, at the expense of everyone else.
They will likely be burning scavenged processed/treated wood, packing crates, fence posts/slats, anything to can be easily obtained without tools which is highly toxic. Would likely not be logs cut from trees.
When will a majority Canadiens wake up and realize that when they listened to the Climate Crazies and kept Justin Trudeau last Fall, they put their economic future at risk? In a country that depends on having fossil fuels for heating.
Joel, it’s much more than a “majority” of Canadians that have to wake up. The world’s academic, media, governing and corporate elites are all on board with the scary AGW narrative.
Linzden is right….“What historians will definitely wonder about in future centuries is how deeply flawed logic, obscured by shrewd and unrelenting propaganda, actually enabled a coalition of powerful special interests to convince nearly everyone in the world that Carbon Dioxide (CO2) from human industry was a dangerous, planet-destroying toxin. It will be remembered as the greatest mass delusion in the history of the world – that CO2, the life of plants, was considered for a time to be a deadly poison.”
Note that he says “future centuries”.
This stinky little climate change creature easily could be “centuries” away from sitting on the back shelves alongside all the other hobgoblins that have come and gone.
Majority of Canadians live in Central Canada which happens to have very little oil, coal, or natural gas. IMO, since they believe their income is not affected by the “Green” energy agenda they easily accept the propaganda. Similar to Europe. (as well as those in New York etc)
Actually Trudeau did not ‘win’ the second election. Andrew Sheer, Conservative lost it. Sheer won the popular vote eventhough he was a no-name candidate of the rigid antedeluvial variety, who somehow was taken by surprise by questions about where he stood on abortion, gay marriages and others on the usual list of lost cause issues. He should have prepared himself for this intelligently and Canadians would have voted him in with a big majority just to get rid of Trudeau.
For myself, I was weighing options of leaving Canada after over 80yrs as a Canadian. Trump’s win gave me hope that the néomarxiste Liberals (they used to be at least pro- business like the Democrats once were) would fold and we would get back to reality with the collapse of the Democrats in the US who are gone for a generation if the swamp dweller Republicans can change or be replaced by those taking up Trump’s pragmatic transformative Republican version.
It isn’t Canadians who are the problem, Joel. It is the eastern Ontario Canadians whose vote make ours out west totally useless and irrelevant. Even when everyone east of the Great Lakes votes for a change, unanimously, we still get the moron because central and eastern Ontario wants him. I have never been more ashamed and humiliated to be Canadian. #Wexit all the way.
Thanks Charles. This is an important subject as we see so much uncertainty.
Here’s Larry Fink, the head of Black Rock talking about uncertainty at Davos. Can anyone figure out what Fink actually said?
There you have it. Warren Buffet is well aware of three principles: 1. Sunk funds, 2. Critical paths, and 3. Fatal flaws. Sure, sometimes a company will hang in there with a difficult permitting issue, but NEVER to recapture sunk funds.
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/company-news/video/blackrock-ceo-fink-sees-climate-change-becoming-an-investment-risk~1881048
When Fink was talking to the insurance companies he would have been told that they are raising premiums with the concern of climate warming, hurricane’s and flooding etc, but the insurance companies will move more claims into that category regardless of cause. This reinforces that it is happening, and so justifies the premium increases.
Overall insurance companies will make more profit. It’s the old what cup is the red ball under.
Most insurers are solid supporters of the theory, purely for profits.
Wish I had enough money to move markets.
Then again, it’s probably better I don’t.
Wait until the fallout from excessive energy costs, lack of energy availability, and falling employment start hitting home for people to see what eco zealotry has brought them. Couple that with the inability to provide reliable energy along with high cost and you have a perfect storm for people realizing they’ve been conned and there’s no way to fix it. Fossil fuels will become saviors and the eco maniacs will become the scourge.
Lose a few billion, a few billion there – after a while you’re talking about real money.
Sovereign risk has traditionally ascribed to “banana republics” … and so goes Canada.
The fact that Trudeau not only allows but encourages foreign NGOs to interfere in our national politic is indeed causing a sovereignty risk.
No investment dollar is safe when a part time drama teacher runs your country.
While the rest of Canada is paying the price, these illegal protesters are slowly getting exactly what they want.
Trudeau is making us poorer. Then he pitches more Socialism as a solution.
In an impoverished area, with high unemployment, alcoholism, and suicide rates, a $9.5 Billion dollar pipeline project is scuttled by overt environMental corruption, bribery, intimidation, and grasping greed. Oh Canada…..
Canada may need the NG when ENSO joins PDO, AMO, and solar cycles in a downturn.
This is the same reason Teck pulled out its 20$Bn oil sands project last week. More than 3 weeks of blockades of railways and critical infrastructure, 98% conducted by unemployed ecoloons,and some perpetual protesters out for fun, supposedly supporting FIVE hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation. Most of the protesters have no idea what a pipeline is. The ELECTED chiefs (20) along the CGL pipeline route in BC supported it. The nonsense spread all over Canada in spite of court injunctions for the blockades. Trudeau did nothing. Afraid of the “optics” I suppose. A company would have to be nuts to invest in a major project in Canada under its current leadership.
Canadians, please subscribe to Quick Dick McDick. WARNING: He swears a lot. I love him.
unemployed, and for the most part unemployable
I don’t care about swearing.
too fast too loud.
Our Federal Government is working for western Separation.
Probably via incompetence and arrogance,but considering who inhabits the Prime Ministers Office, it is possible malice is also an option.
Once Western Canada declares Independence the Environmentalists will be ecstatic.
Their “Carbon Emissions” will drop .
Virtue signalling will peak.
And the mass clean up of “Natures Largest Oil Spill” will be some one else’ problem.
If you feel the statement that the Canadian Government is actively promoting Western Separation too much,ask yourself this;”What could they have done differently, to alienate the West and demonstrate the uselessness of the central government?”
Confederated Canada is dead.
This should be a wakeup call for the Canadian and other western govts. If they do not demonstrate the intestinal fortitude and will power to stand up to and push back against the protesters and their disruption of economic progress, they should expect to see more investors like Warren Buffett pulling the plug on infrastructure projects such as this pipeline in Canada.
Challenging the soundness of the science that underlies the climate alarmist narrative needs to be a major part of the pushback. When the protesters and the public see little or none of it happening at the U.N., in govt, in academia and in the scientific institutions, they see nothing that doesn’t justify their actions….and a lot of it that does. Govts that want these projects to go forward end up becoming victims of their own cowardliness, and they have no one but themselves to blame.
Trying to straddle the fence between being green and supporting fossil fuel-based infrastructure, as Trudeau appears to be doing in Canada, only creates problems for you from both sides. Perhaps Trudeau believes it’s the most politically expedient thing for him to do, but I suggest otherwise. Pick a side and you only have to deal with issues from the other. If the science underlying the climate alarmist narrative is truly as faulty as it appears to be here at WUWT and elsewhere, Trudeau and other western leaders should not be lacking in weapons with which to go on the offensive. If his political ideology precludes him from doing so, he can expect continuing headaches from both sides, including this decision from Buffett.
This argument applies to Trump in the USA and to European leaders as well.
CD, unfortunately our politicians only want votes, except for my hero, Max Bernier. No sarcasm intended. He almost won the leadership of the UCP, and later walked out of the Party. (Plus he follows WUWT.) Then we get Andrew Scheer, who said nothing about anything during the October election, but is delighted to now poke sticks at twatwaffle Trudeau, as if he wouldn’t have a little trepidation himself about quashing blockades for upsetting the moronic swarms of greentards. What would the UN think? (Like I care.)
No matter. We’ll get all the oil and gas we need from Guyana (8B bbl estimated reserves, Exxon and Chevron got a sweetheart deal from the govt.)
In price comparison, Canada oil sands can’t come near competing. It requires a going price of $60(US)/bbl to break even. Oil sands are over.
chris,
So your prediction is that oil prices will never again rise over $60(US)/bbl?
I’ll take the other side of your prediction. How much would you like to wager?
A few years ago, they were saying that oil prices had to stay above $100/bbl for oil sands to break even.
Your math is missing more than it actually describes. All investment projects are composed of capital cost and operating costs. The ongoing cost of capital is a function of opportunity cost/ interest rates while ongoing operating costs can be estimated but not entirely pre-determined.
The companies that have invested in oilsands operations do detailed capital risk assessments before they commit the first dollar of development money. In general, oilsands companies have done very well, as the operating cost are very low. Experience in this field has shown that many, many improvements can be made in operations efficiency. Similar improvements have been made in energy efficiency which translates to carbon “footprint”. I personally couldn’t care less how much “carbon” they produce but t’s about on par with heavy conventional oil from “Green” California. And hypocrisy free!
Anything short of turning all profits over to the government counts as a “sweetheart deal” in the “minds” of the left.
Some oilsands plants have production costs below $10 a barrel,add in the capitol costs and then we see just where the profits are.That’s why in most caes the biggar the the production the higher the returns.With some sweetspots there is profits for small production plants .
. . . Canazuela
Like
Our illustrious Prime Minister is a malevolent imbecile. He is an embarrassment to our fantastic country. It is going to be interesting to see how this plays in eastern (socialist) Canada. Up till now his rampant stupidity has only damaged western Canada while the rest of the country yawned and kept cashing their “Equalization Payment” checks (or cheques as we call them). When Quebec starts to lose projects and investments it will be an entirely different kettle of fish.
From the article: “Fortin added that foreign investors are becoming nervous because of the “instability” in the country, caused by the ongoing anti-pipeline blockades.”
Isn’t the real cause the failure of Trudeau to reign in the lawbreakers?
These leftists are not living in the real world, they are living in a false reality, and when they try to run things in the real world, they screw them up royally. That goes for all the leftist politicians in the Western Democracies, not just Trudeau, but he is just as bad as any of them; just as deluded; just as dangerous to personal freedoms and the economy that allows us to be free.
Suddenly Quebec is getting hit by Justin Trudeau’s decisions same as Alberta. The difference being Quebec’s the Prime Minister’s political support base. As for the blockades, the government should put them under blockage, zero anything gets in or out until they cave.
Why would the federal government care? They don’t own the resources. Resources are owned by the provinces.
The feds have been trying for years to tie the resources up in environmental regulations so they can skim the cream off the tip to line their own pockets.
The carbon tax is simply another attempt by the feds to gain defacto ownership of provincial natural cresources.
chris. Sorry, but you have no idea what you’re talking about. Join Griff. Here’s Suncor’s annual report. (One of the larger operators in the oil sands.) Not doing too bad, in spite of having to take a $20+ discount /bbl on Canada Select, because we have NO DAMN PIPELINES except to export to the US. https://www.suncor.com/en-ca/investor-centre/financial-reports/annual-disclosure
The old fox is temporarily holding off
06/03/2020 15:22 pm CST
WTI Crude $41.47 -9.65%
Brent Crude $45.58 -8.82%
Two weeks ago the WTI Crude was $53.88
Canada just took another step on the path to Venezuela.
Conducted by the media and its federal government.
Diabolical.
Bob in Vancouver.
Vuk, cancelling a project in Canada means years. if not decades, of maneuvering through regulations to re-apply. In Canada, the word “cancelled” when it concerns oil & gas projects means cancelled, not postponed. It’s gone. (Thanks again, Justin!)
Peter T, I hope that’s true for Ontario’s industrial wind turbine contracts that were cancelled by Premier Doug Ford shortly after he was elected.
The Liberal government that was decimated…lost its party status…is now trying to resurrect itself and thinks if ever elected again, they can lunge forward with industrial scale renewables in rural Ontario.
I can’t understand how the Liberal party sticks with this bozo as their leader. It is long past due that they realize his incompetence and seek a new leader.