LNG Adds to Petro-Canada’s Appeal

Article Excerpt

PETRO-CANADA $56 (Toronto symbol PCA; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 488.8 million; Market cap: $27.4 billion; SI Rating: Average) has formed a joint venture with Gazprom, a major Russian natural gas company, to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant that will cool gas into a liquid form for transport by tanker. Petro-Canada also has a joint venture with TransCanada Corp. to build a plant in Quebec that would re-convert the LNG from Russia and elsewhere back into natural gas for transportation through pipelines to markets in Quebec and Ontario. These terminals will cost billions to build and operate. Sharing these costs with partners cuts Petro-Canada’s risk. The company aims to begin importing LNG in late 2009. Petro-Canada is a buy. buy…