Canadian Pension Funds Join Blackstone in $3.1 Billion Investment Linked to LNG Canada

Blackstone and four Canadian institutional investors have agreed to invest $3.1 billion for a minority interest in a Mitsubishi Corporation business linked to LNG Canada, the large liquefied natural gas export terminal in British Columbia. The group is buying 49.9% of a Mitsubishi holding company, rather than a direct 49.9% stake in the LNG Canada project.

The Canadian investors are CPP Investments, the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS), the Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (IMCO) and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments). Funds managed by Blackstone Credit & Insurance are participating alongside the Canadian institutions, bringing pension-related capital into the ownership structure as LNG Canada prepares for a major expansion.

Separate announcements on November 2 used different figures to describe the investment. Blackstone said its investor group had agreed to invest $3.1 billion, while Mitsubishi valued the sale of the holding-company interest at approximately $1.6 billion, or roughly 250 billion yen. Their public statements do not provide a detailed reconciliation of those amounts. The $3.1 billion commitment should therefore not be treated as the disclosed purchase price for the shares alone.

The investors are buying into Mitsubishi’s holding company

LNG Canada is a five-partner venture operating an export facility in Kitimat on the traditional territory of the Haisla Nation. Shell owns 40% of the project, PETRONAS 25%, PetroChina 15%, Mitsubishi 15% and Korea Gas Corporation 5%. The Blackstone-led group is entering through a company that holds Mitsubishi’s interest, leaving the other project participants’ stated ownership positions outside the announced stake sale.

Ownership of 49.9% of the holding company does not translate into a 49.9% interest in the terminal. Mitsubishi will continue to control the holding company, while the Blackstone-led investors hold the minority position. The announced terms do not put those financial investors in charge of LNG Canada’s operations.

CPP Investments is joining through wholly owned subsidiaries of CPPIB Credit Investments Inc., according to Blackstone. OMERS and PSP Investments are major Canadian pension investors, while IMCO manages investment portfolios for Ontario public-sector clients. Blackstone did not disclose how the $3.1 billion commitment is divided among the participants or identify a separate investment amount for each Canadian institution.

For the Canadian institutions, the minority holding offers exposure to an established export project without an operating role at the terminal. Mitsubishi gains a financial partner but remains responsible for its position within the five-member venture. The distinction helps explain how a large outside investment can be made without changing which companies run LNG Canada or market its output.

Mitsubishi keeps control and its LNG sales rights

Mitsubishi said the sale is intended to improve the capital efficiency of its investment and to help advance LNG Canada’s expansion. The Japanese trading house operates across the Western Canadian gas business, from upstream natural gas development and production to LNG processing and sales. Bringing in financial partners at the infrastructure-holding-company level gives it a way to share capital exposure without abandoning those activities.

LNG Canada operates an equity-lifting model: each project partner brings its own gas supply and takes delivery of LNG in proportion to its ownership interest. Mitsubishi said the holding company currently has rights to 2.1 million tonnes of LNG a year, a volume it expects to rise to 4.2 million tonnes once the expansion is operating. Those offtake rights are preserved under the announced investment.

Mitsubishi’s role extends beyond owning a share of the facility. It markets Canadian LNG to buyers in Asia, particularly Japan, through Diamond Global Energy, its wholly owned marketing subsidiary in Singapore. Mitsubishi said the addition of financial investors will not affect either its LNG offtake volumes or its customers, preserving a commercial activity that operates alongside its infrastructure investment.

Phase 2 is planned to double LNG Canada’s capacity

The investment follows the September 2026 final investment decision to expand LNG Canada. The first phase began shipping LNG in June 2025 and was built around two liquefaction trains capable of producing about 14 million tonnes annually. Phase 2 will add two more trains, taking the plant’s planned total capacity to 28 million tonnes a year. Shell expects the expanded facility to begin commercial operations in the early 2030s.

Physical work planned for Phase 2 goes beyond the liquefaction trains. Shell has outlined another LNG storage tank, a condensate tank, a loading berth and additional processing and utility infrastructure at Kitimat. The associated Coastal GasLink system, a roughly 670-kilometre pipeline connecting Western Canadian gas supplies with the terminal, is expected to increase its capacity through the addition of five compressor stations. Those works are part of the physical build-out needed to support greater LNG exports.

A larger plant will give the existing owners more LNG to market if the expansion is completed as planned. Mitsubishi’s expected rise from 2.1 million to 4.2 million tonnes a year reflects its continued 15% project interest. Shell, which holds 40% of LNG Canada, has said it expects to receive nearly 6 million tonnes of additional LNG annually from Phase 2. The arrangements illustrate why maintaining offtake rights can be commercially important even when an owner sells part of a company that holds an investment in the infrastructure.

Kitimat offers a Pacific export outlet for natural gas produced in Western Canada, with shipments directed toward overseas buyers. Canada’s Major Projects Office has identified Phase 2 as a way to diversify export markets and attract private investment. These are the government’s stated objectives, not assured outcomes for an infrastructure project that still requires years of construction.

Much of the additional capacity depends on completing the new processing units and the related gas pipeline upgrades. Shell has forecast roughly 60% growth in global LNG demand by 2040, but that remains a company projection rather than a guaranteed market for the additional output. The Blackstone-led investment changes Mitsubishi’s financial ownership structure; it does not itself add production capacity. Shell is targeting the early 2030s for commercial operations from the expansion.