* Company looking at potential LNG plant sites
* Q1 earning $0.94/share vs C$1.19 year earlier
* Says start-up of first phase of Kearl oil sands projectimminent
* Shares rise 0.9 pct
CALGARY, Alberta, April 25 (Reuters) - Imperial Oil Ltd, Canada's No. 2 oil producer and refiner, is looking atsites for a potential liquefied natural gas export plant onBritish Columbia's Pacific coast, though the company is far fromready to decide if it will build the facility.
Imperial, which on Thursday reported a 21 percent fall infirst-quarter profit due to lower crude prices and increasedrefinery maintenance, has put in what the company termed "anexpression of interest" for a site at Grassy Point, about 30kilometers (19 miles), north of Prince Rupert, B.C. It is one ofa number of sites the company is considering for an LNG plant.
"It's an expression of interest to look at, with the Crown,what we can do on that potential site, as we do with others,"Richard Kruger, the company's chief executive, told reporters.
"We'll look around the coast, at this site as well asothers, to see what best meets our needs."
The company, along with majority owner, Exxon Mobil Corp, has been considering whether to build agas-liquefaction plant for more than a year, as it looks toexploit its massive shale gas holdings in northeastern BritishColumbia.
It added to those shale reserves earlier this year, when itand Exxon acquired Celtic Resources Ltd for C$2.6 billion ($2.55billion) to gain its promising shale oil and gas properties inWestern Canada.
Chevron Corp, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, BGGroup Plc, Malaysia's Petronas and others arealready in the early stages of building their own LNG facilitiesin British Columbia. However Kruger said Imperial is far frombeing ready to proceed with its own facility.
"With LNG projects it's hard to put an absolute timeline toit," he said. "They're complex and there are a lot ofcomponents. But we're working hard right now on each of thosecomponents to see what we can assemble."
KEARL START IMMINENT
The company said the start-up of the first phase of itsKearl oil sands project in northern Alberta is imminent and thesales of Kearl blend are expected to begin in the third quarter,once it fills storage tanks and the pipeline serving theproject.
Imperial, 69.6 percent owned by Exxon Mobil Corp,has been struggling to overcome start-up problems at its 110,000barrel per day Kearl project.
The C$12.9 billion project was originally expected to beginproducing by the end of 2012 but was delayed as bitterly coldtemperatures slowed work on the facility.
The 79 percent-owned Kearl project will use productiontechnology that allows the oil sands' tar-like bitumen to flowto market without the need for upgrade.
The project has been plagued by cost overruns that pushedthe budget nearly two-thirds above Imperial's initial 2009forecast of C$7.9 billion estimate.
PROFIT FALLS
Imperial's net income in the quarter fell to C$798 million($777 million), or 94 Canadian cents per share, from C$1.02billion, or C$1.19 per share, a year earlier.
Revenue rose 6 percent to C$8.01 billion.
Imperial's gross production fell 2 percent to average284,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Cash flow from operations, a key indicator of the company'sability to pay for new projects and drilling, fell to C$597million from C$1.05 billion a year earlier.
Imperial shares were up 34 Canadian cents to C$40.43 bymidafternoon on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
