LNG Canada partners to proceed with US$14 billion LNG project in British Columbia

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LNG Canada has announced that its joint venture participants – Shell, PETRONAS, PetroChina, Mitsubishi Corporation and KOGAS – have taken a Final Investment Decision (FID) to build an LNG export facility in Kitimat, British Columbia.

This announcement represents the single largest private sector investment project in Canadian history, with the total development cost of the plant estimated to be around US$14 billion.

The FID is for two processing units or “trains,” with first LNG expected before the middle of the next decade. The project will have a combined capacity of 14 million tons per annum. Operations are slated to commence in the mid-2020s.

Each joint venture participant will be responsible to provide its own natural gas supply and will individually offtake and market its share of LNG. It is intended that LNG Canada will provide natural gas to countries where imported gas could displace more carbon intensive energy sources and help to address global climate change and air pollution.

The plant has been designed to achieve the lowest carbon intensity of any large-scale LNG plant operating in the world today. It will be powered by renewable hydropower from BC Hydro and will utilise highly-efficient gas turbine engines.

LNG Canada is advantaged by access to abundant, low-cost natural gas from British Columbia’s vast reserves and the relatively short shipping distance to North Asia, which is about 50% shorter than from the US Gulf of Mexico and avoids the Panama Canal. 

The LNG plant will be constructed on a large, partially-developed industrial site with existing deep-water port, roads, rail and power supplies. The Kitimat site was identified from a list of 500 potential locations in British Columbia, first announced in May 2012.