CALGARY, Alberta, March 21 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell is putting on hold two small-scale gas liquefactionprojects in Ontario and Louisiana that were earmarked to supplyliquefied natural gas as a transport fuel, a company spokesmansaid on Friday.
Shell said it was exploring the investment value of theproposed units at its Corunna refinery near Sarnia, Ontario, andGeismar Chemicals facility, Louisiana, spokesman David Williamssaid.
"It's about hard choices in terms of where we are going todirect investment dollars," Williams said.
"This is a continuous evaluation of the opportunities of LNGas a transport fuel. We are continuing to look at it but thecurrent plan is to pause the building of these particularunits."
Plans to build the plants were announced in March 2013 asShell announced investment plans to make LNG a viable fueloption for the commercial market.
Each unit, which cools natural gas at very low temperaturesto convert it to liquid, would have been able to produce 250,000tons of LNG.
The Corunna facility was intended to supply LNG fuel alongthe Great Lakes corridor, while the Geismar unit would havesupplied LNG along the Mississippi river and offshore Gulf ofMexico. (Reporting by Nia Williams; Editing by Sofina Mirza-Reid)