LNG Canada set to begin year-long “safe start-up” in 2024
LNG Canada CEO Jason Klein said December 13 the five-company consortium building the 14mn tonnes/year natural gas liquefaction terminal on BC’s northern coast will begin a year-long “safe start-up” process in 2024, ahead of delivering its first cargoes in 2025.
In a year-end update posted to LNG Canada’s website, Klein said the project, which reached a final investment decision in October 2018, reached its peak construction cycle this past fall, with more than 8,000 workers on site. All 215 large modules have been installed, and the facility in Kitimat, on the traditional territory of the Haisla Nation, is now more than 85% complete.
HaiSea Marine, a joint venture of Haisla Nation and SeaSpan, has taken delivery of four of the five tugs it will use to provide escort and harbour tug services to LNG Canada, including the first of two dual-fueled escort tugs.
Coastal GasLink, the 670-km pipeline that will deliver 1.8bn ft3/day of natural gas to the first phase of LNG Canada and an additional 300mn ft3/day to the nearby Cedar LNG floating project, is now mechanically complete and ready to deliver gas.
“We’re now preparing for safe start-up activities to begin in 2024,” Klein said. “That’s when our equipment is tested and fine-tuned, and we begin the process of producing LNG.”
Over the past five years, the LNG Canada consortium – Shell, PETRONAS, PetroChina, Mitsubishi and KOGAS – and its prime subcontractor, a joint venture of Fluor and JGC, have awarded more than C$4.2bn in contracts and procurement to businesses in BC, of which more than C$3.3bn went to First Nations-owned businesses and local area businesses, Klein said.
Another C$11mn has been contributed to community-based programs, services and infrastructure benefiting Kitimat, Terrace and local First Nations.
The consortium partners, Klein added, are continuing to explore the potential of a second phase, which would add another 14mn tonnes/year of liquefaction capacity and trigger an expansion of Coastal GasLink to 5bn ft3/day.
“And while LNG Canada will be Canada’s first LNG export facility, we’re also helping pave the way for new, indigenous-led LNG projects in BC,” he said, including the nearby Cedar LNG facility, majority-owned by the Haisla Nation with its partner, Pembina Pipeline.