Blackstone and Canadian Investors Put $3.1 Billion Into Stake Linked to LNG Canada
Key Facts
Blackstone said on November 2 that funds managed by its credit and insurance arm, in partnership with Canadian institutional investors, had agreed to invest $3.1 billion to acquire a 49.9% non-controlling stake in a Mitsubishi subsidiary. The subsidiary holds Mitsubishi’s interest in the liquefaction business within the LNG Canada project. Mitsubishi will remain the controlling partner in the project, the transaction statement said. It will also retain all of its share of allocated LNG volumes. The deal therefore concerns a stake in the subsidiary that holds Mitsubishi’s interest in the liquefaction business, rather than a direct sale of the Japanese company’s stake in the project.
The investor group, alongside Blackstone, includes Canada’s pension fund CPP Investments, OMERS, the Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (IMCO) and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), according to Blackstone’s statement. The deal comes as the project prepares to increase output following a final investment decision on Phase 2. LNG Canada loaded its first cargo in June 2025, according to information published about the project. Its 40-year export licence allows it to export about 14 million tonnes of LNG a year in Phase 1. That existing capacity provides the project with an operating base ahead of the planned expansion.
LNG Canada’s partners decided in late September 2026 to proceed with Phase 2, which will add two processing units and raise annual capacity from 14 million tonnes to 28 million tonnes. Shell expects commercial operations to begin in the early 2030s. LNG Canada said the expansion could generate more than C$50 billion in government revenues over the project’s lifetime. The company also expects the work to support up to 4,000 construction jobs in Kitimat at peak activity, along with about 2,100 jobs tied to new compressor stations on the Coastal GasLink pipeline. The figures reflect the scale of work tied to the expansion, from liquefaction facilities to the infrastructure that transports gas to the coast.
Phase 2 work on the Coastal GasLink pipeline includes adding compressor stations and upgrading facilities along its existing 670-kilometre route. TC Energy expects construction to begin in early 2027, with the pipeline entering service in the early 2030s. The project links the expansion of liquefaction facilities with increased capacity to supply them with gas, while the pipeline forms part of the infrastructure needed to raise output to the targeted level. LNG Canada announced the Phase 2 final investment decision on September 28, 2026, while Mitsubishi said the decision was made with project partners on September 29. The announcements show that the investment deal follows approval of the expansion, as preparatory work continues on both the industrial and pipeline projects.
Before the deal, LNG Canada’s ownership structure comprised five companies, according to project disclosures: Shell with a 40% stake, PETRONAS with 25%, PetroChina with 15%, Mitsubishi with 15% and KOGAS with 5%. These percentages define the companies’ ownership in the project, while Blackstone’s deal targets a non-controlling stake in a Mitsubishi subsidiary that holds the Japanese company’s interest in the liquefaction business. Mitsubishi will remain the controlling partner and continue to retain its allocated LNG volumes, the transaction statement said. The arrangement highlights the distinction between investing in the subsidiary and Mitsubishi’s operational control and share of supply. The announcement did not detail the deal’s effect on the project’s disclosed ownership structure.
The project also benefits from its location on Canada’s west coast, which Mitsubishi said allows relatively short shipping distances to major demand centres in Asia, including Japan. The company added that Canadian cargoes to Asia do not need to pass through major maritime chokepoints. The location puts the project on a trade route linking Canadian gas supplies with Asian markets, a factor in the background to the investment and expansion. In separate forecasts, Shell said global demand for LNG is expected to rise by about 60% by 2040 and about 65% by 2050. The company linked those forecasts to growing energy demand and the need for secure, flexible and reliable supplies.