LNG export facility in Kitimat going forward
Posted October 1, 2018 11:27 pm.
Last Updated October 2, 2018 8:39 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – An LNG export facility in Kitimat has received the green light.
LNG Canada made the announcement late Monday night, saying its joint venture participants- Shell, PETRONAS, PetroChina, Mitsubishi Corporation and KOGAS- have made a final investment decision.
“The Final Investment Decision taken by our joint venture participants shows that British Columbia and Canada, working with First Nations and local communities, can deliver competitive energy projects,” said Andy Calitz, CEO of LNG Canada in a news release. “This decision showcases how industrial development can co-exist with environmental stewardship and Indigenous interests.”
Each joint venture participant will be responsible to provide its own natural gas supply and will individually off take and market its share of LNG. The FID is for two processing units or “trains,” with first LNG expected before the middle of the next decade.
Premier John Horgan said the project symbolizes the kind of balanced and sustainable path forward British Columbians are looking for.
“We welcome the unprecedented commitment shown by the LNG Canada partners to work within our province’s ambitious climate goals. The critical importance of this project is what it represents – the intersecting of economic development, jobs for local workers, partnerships with Indigenous communities and forward-looking climate leadership,” he said in the same news release.
“We’re delighted the global business community sees British Columbia as a natural home for this kind of investment.” LNG Canada has worked towards FID since it first identified Kitimat from a list of 500 potential sites in British Columbia as the ideal location for an LNG export facility.
Reports that a $40-billion LNG is a project is a go surfaced over the weekend, prompting concern from BC Green Party leader Andrew Weaver, who remains disappointed amid confirmation of the project.
“Adding such a massive new source of GhGs means that the rest of our economy will have to make even more sacrifices to meet our climate targets. A significant portion of the LNG Canada investment will be spent on a plant manufactured overseas, with steel sourced from other countries,” Weaver said in a release sent out Monday night.
“B.C. taxpayers will subsidize its power by paying rates twice as high and taking on the enormous public debt required to build Site C. There may be as little as 100 permanent jobs at LNG Canada. I believe we can create far more jobs in other industries that won’t drastically increase our emissions.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the announcement represents the single largest private sector investment project in Canadian history.
“It is a vote of confidence in a country that recognizes the need to develop our energy in way that takes the environment into account, and that works in meaningful partnership with Indigenous communities,” he says in the release, announcing the project.
Trudeau and Horgan have scheduled a news conference for Tuesday morning.
