The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) spent the last week visiting communities and elected officials in the Northwest to discuss energy development in the province.
"We do represent the upstream industry and we recognize there is a great opportunity for LNG and people have some questions and would like to learn a little bit about how the upstream operates ... we're trying to have a conversation about the upstream components that enter an LNG pipeline and would feed any future LNG facility," said CAPP's manager of B.C. operations Geoff Morrison.
"It's not an industry that is active in the Northwest. In the same way people in the Lower Mainland or Ontario wouldn't think significantly about how those products are developed or be actively involved in it, we're finding the same. It's a new industry."
While acknowledging opposition to development in the region, Morrison said he is confident with the industry's record.
"Obviously people have environmental concerns. We think we have a good safety process and a good track record, but people haven't been exposed to that so we want to have that dialogue and find out what the questions are ... there are some things we hear that we haven't heard before."