The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition Malaysia's Petronas has begun early engineering work for a massive B.C. natural gas export project, and is weeks away from applying to send energy offshore and build a pipeline to the west coast. The Globe's Nathan VanderKlippe writes that on Tuesday, Petronas said it had contracted three engineering consortia for front-end engineering and design of its Pacific NorthWest LNG project, which the company hopes to build in Prince Rupert. The contract is "the next step in the process toward final investment decision," said Greg Kist, president of builder Pacific NorthWest LNG Ltd. Petronas plans to liquefy Canadian natural gas and load it on Asia-bound tankers. It expects to apply to the National Energy Board for a natural gas export permit in the next month; TransCanada, which has agreed to build a pipeline to the coast, expects to submit an application for that project by the end of next week. Petronas also continues to talk with other potential partners about selling up to half of its project; last month it struck a deal giving 10 per cent to Japan Petroleum Exploration. Petronas aims to make a final investment decision by late 2014 and ship by 2018.