A design concept shows the terminal that Newfoundland LNG Ltd. has wanted to build in Placentia Bay, in southern Newfoundland. (Newfoundland LNG Ltd.)

A steep drop in the price of natural gas has crippled an East Coast natural gas industry that once held great promise.

ExxonMobil recently decided not to extend the life of its natural gas project off Nova Scotia's Sable Island and the liquefied natural gas terminal proposed for Placentia Bay may never get off the ground.

Many of the projects were proposed five years ago when the price of natural gas was climbing steadily toward an all-time high.

The Placentia Bay project was slated to be built at Whiffen Head and would have liquefied, stored and marketed natural gas from Newfoundland's offshore reserves. But it was put on hold during last year's economic downturn.

Industry analysts say the price of natural gas is now just one-third of its peak price, and that it's expected to stay low.

The proposed natural gas projects, which aimed to extract gas from offshore sites, were also hurt by new technology that allows oil companies to extract natural gas from shale in the eastern U.S. for far less than pumping it out from the bed of the Atlantic Ocean.

When the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board recently offered two new drilling areas near Sable Island there were no takers, further illustrating the loss of faith in offshore natural gas.