- Region: North America
- Energy and Natural Resources
- Overseas Investment Loans
May 9, 2011
- The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC; President & CEO: Hiroshi Watanabe)*1 signed on April 27, a loan agreement amounting to a total of up to 250 million Canadian dollars with Cordova Gas Resources Ltd. (CGR), a company incorporated by Mitsubishi Corporation; Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd.; Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc.; and Osaka Gas Co., Ltd. in Canada. The loan was co-financed with the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd.
- The loan will finance CGR’s acquisition of a 50% interest in the Cordova Embayment, British Columbia, Canada, from Penn West Exploration, an oil and gas exploration company in Canada, and for the development and production of shale gas.
- With its vast shale gas reserves, Canada has great potential to emerge as a new natural gas supplier for markets in the Asia-Pacific region. The participation of Mitsubishi Corporation and three Japanese electricity/gas firms in this project will secure gas interests in North America, which will contribute to the improvement of Japan’s energy security, through diversifying gas supply sources and easing demand-supply conditions in the Asian LNG market. The Japanese participating parties in this project indicate that they will consider the possibility of importing shale gas to Japan in the form of LNG for the coming years.
- This loan will support the acquisition of interests in shale gas, which has been expected to become a new source of natural gas in recent years, thereby contributing to securing energy resources and their stable supply to Japan. JBIC will continue to actively support Japanese firms in the acquisition of interests in crude oil and natural gas for Japan’s energy security.
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