The national petroleum giant’s Group Strategic Communications Department in a statement today, said the company is currently taking proactive steps to mature the projects towards its Final Investment Decision.

“Currently, the Canadian environmental impact assessment process for the PNW LNG project is still ongoing, following which a final report will be produced by the relevant agency to be submitted to the Government of Canada for approval.

“Petronas, together with the project shareholders, will review the said final report and evaluate conditions attached to the report to further determine their impact on the overall cost structure and schedule of the project,” said the statement.

“The outcome, reviewed together with the LNG market outlook and overall project commerciality, will be used to develop the proposal for an investment decision to be considered by the PNW LNG shareholders.”

Yesterday, it was reported that Petronas had threatened to pull out from the Pacific Northwest project if it was not approved by March 31 by the Trudeau Government which recently introduced climate-change policies.

The Financial Post (FP) report said that Petronas had already suffered multiple delays and setbacks in the project, on which it has already spent USD12 bil so far.

Canada’s new Liberal government is toughening up environmental reviews of major energy projects, in line with its “international commitments to help reduce greenhouse gases”, and also “to regain public trust.”

The project in question sits on federal land on Lelu Island near Prince Rupert. It received “a largely favourable assessment” from the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) last month, as well as the green light from the British Columbia Government in November 2014.