KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysia government-owned Petroliam Nasional has announced it has agreed to purchase Canada's natural gas producer Progress Energy Resources for some $5.5 billion Canadian dollars. It is the latest move by Petronas in Malaysia to bolster its North American holdings. Petronas also said it plans to build a liquefied-natural-gas export terminal in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, off Canada's western coast—the fourth major LNG export project under consideration for the country. North American natural-gas prices have fallen sharply amid a boom in new natural-gas drilling techniques on the continent. That has spurred a number of projects, all in the early stages, in the United States and Canada aimed at exporting gas to Asia, where demand is strong and prices relatively high. The Petronas deal sent shares of other Canadian gas producers higher Thursday. Low gas prices have weighed heavily on the sector, and investors appeared encouraged by the prospect that more Asian buyers will emerge.
