Last week the Government of B.C. approved the substantial start for the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Pipeline which, if completed, would feed fracked gas from BC’s Northeast to an export terminal near the mouth of the Nass River. The Ksi Lisisms LNG project is being billed as the first Indigenous owned and lead LNG project of its kind, along with the backing of a Texas based gas company called Western LNG.

This comes on the heels of the Government of B.C.’s push to see several major industry projects move forward in the hopes of diversifying markets amid the U.S. trade war. However, there are already legal challenges of the project in the courts and more to follow. There is also strong Gitxsan and non-Indigenous opposition to the pipeline and hundreds of Nisga’a members have also signed petitions in opposition of the export terminal.

At the same moment we are seeing intense flaring in Kitimat as LNG Canada’s LNG export facility gears up to ship out its first tanker of LNG in the coming months.

Although we often here about the opposition and support for these projects here in the northwest, we rarely hear about where is all this gas coming from and what is going to be needed in the future to support increase production of B.C.’s LNG industry?

Today we speak with earth scientist David Hughes, of Global Sustainability Research who spent 32 years with the Geological Survey of Canada and has conducted extensive research into Canada’s unconventional and potential gas production capacity. We spoke to him about the potential of growth in B.C.’s LNG industry and what the potential drawbacks are within that growth.