ambiguous history
Several of the companies involved in the two projects, either directly or through financing agreements, have opaque histories and troubled portfolios. Domestic costs also include accusations of environmental pollution and potential human rights violations.
Technical issues at the newly built LNG Canada facility have caused the plant to combust more than 350 million cubic meters of gas since commissioning began in early 2025, making it one of the world’s biggest sources of flaring emissions.
The local community was unaware of the scale and nature of the problem until Canadian environmental news outlet The Narwhal reported that the plant had begun operations despite identifying “integrity issues” with the equipment.
LNG Canada is owned by a consortium of five foreign companies: Shell, Petronas, Korea Gas, PetroChina and Mitsubishi. Shell is the largest shareholder.
Like TotalEnergies, Shell has signed an agreement to purchase 2 million tonnes of LNG from Ksi Lisims in 2024. The company recently acquired Arc Resources, a Canadian oil and gas company with assets in northeastern British Columbia and Alberta.
Shell’s oil and gas operations in Nigeria are among its most notorious. The United Nations estimates that there have been at least 7,000 accidents in the Niger Delta since Shell began operations there in 1958, spilling more than 13 million barrels of oil. These leaks, and the company’s subsequent attempts to evade responsibility, are said to have destroyed the lives and livelihoods of local residents.
Anna Zarick, a professor at York University in Toronto, has been documenting Shell’s actions in Nigeria for more than 20 years. He said the way the company portrayed itself as a “responsible actor in the Canadian context” was disingenuous.
“The company has been involved in all kinds of lawsuits regarding these gross human rights violations in Nigeria, actual violence against communities and serious environmental damage, and yet it tries to act as if its operations here are not somehow the same as its operations there,” she said.
“Their track record shows they are trying to avoid responsibility and liability for the pollution they cause.”
Shell declined an interview request, saying the nature of its business was “not one that we are aware of.”
“Shell is committed to honesty, integrity and respect for people, and to conducting its business in an ethical and transparent manner, in accordance with applicable laws and regulations in the jurisdictions in which it operates,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
The spokesperson added that the company’s operations in Nigeria involved “complex and controversial issues” and that the allegations “do not reflect the challenging operating environment in the Niger Delta at the time, including large-scale oil theft, sabotage and illegal refining by organized criminal groups.”
Shell’s LNG facilities in northwestern British Columbia are supplied by the controversial Coastal GasLink pipeline, which TC Energy built across Wet’suwet’en Territory between 2019 and 2024 without the consent of the country’s First Nations leaders and hereditary chiefs. In 2020, construction of the 670-kilometer (420-mile) pipeline became the focus of Indigenous-led protests, arrests, and nationwide outrage.
KKR, a New York investment firm with extensive global influence, is the majority owner of the pipeline. Last year, KKR caused a stir with its controversial acquisition of Superstruct Entertainment, the parent company of a number of music festivals and franchises, including electronic music outfit Boiler Room and festivals such as Barcelona’s Sonar and London’s Field Day. Dozens of artists also accused KKR of promoting illegal occupation of Palestinian territory.
At the time, KKR owned a stake in German media company Axel Springer, which promoted real estate development in the occupied West Bank. In the West Bank, Israel is accused of forcibly relocating Palestinian residents and carrying out ethnic cleansing.
KKR has no real estate interests in the West Bank and said it would no longer invest in Axel Springer. It remains unclear whether the investment firm holds financial interests in companies related to Israeli defense contractors or cybersecurity companies that support the Israeli military.
As part of LNG Canada’s proposed expansion plan, the pipeline operator would install compressor stations along the route, including the Wet’suwet’en region, to double the amount of gas it currently transports. In addition to owning the Coastal GasLink pipeline, KKR is one of three investment companies vying to buy Shell’s stake in Canadian LNG, including its proposed expansion.
Meanwhile, Kushi Rishim will be served by the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Pipeline. The pipeline is an 800-kilometer (500-mile) linear project that crosses numerous indigenous territories. The pipeline and LNG facility are jointly owned by the Nisga’a Risims, the First Nation government of northwestern British Columbia. Some neighboring countries have not agreed to the project, saying there was not enough consultation.
In 2025, French multinational TotalEnergies signed an agreement with Ksi Lisims LNG to purchase 2 million tons of liquefied gas per year and at the same time acquire a 5% stake in the project’s parent company, Texas-based Western LNG.
Total Energy is accused of “complicity in war crimes, torture and forced disappearance” at its LNG facilities in Mozambique, according to a criminal complaint filed in late 2025 by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR). The indictment filed with France’s national anti-terrorism prosecution centers on the company’s complicity in the so-called “container massacre” of 2021. There is no update on the investigation. by the prosecutor.
Total Energy has also been implicated in reports regarding the supply of oil to Israel, which has been implicated as enabling genocide in the Gaza Strip. At least 75,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since Israel began its war in 2023. The French company is also suspected of supplying the Russian military with supply gas used to make jet fuel for planes that bombed Ukraine.
Total Energy did not respond to a request for comment.
