Canada’s First Large LNG Export Facility Enters Final Commissioning Stage

LNG Canada received its critical cooldown shipment of LNG on April 2, as the project which is poised to become the country’s first major LNG export facility, continues on track to achieve its first export cargo by the middle of 2025. It will open a key market for Canada as it launched the LNG industry shipping gas to Asia in competition with the U.S. and Australia which have been the traditional large suppliers.

The project calls itself the largest private sector investment in Canadian history. Construction began on the project in 2019 with an initial two trains and two docks to handle LNG carriers. The terminal will process up to 2 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd), representing approximately 11 percent of current Canadian gas output, or a total annual capacity of 14 million tonnes annually, and designed to potentially expand with two additional trains.

LNG Canada is a joint venture company comprised of Shell, PETRONAS, PetroChina, Mitsubishi Corporation, and KOGAS. It is also the start of an industry that is expected to develop over the second half of this decade.

Cooldown cargo arrived from Australia as testing proceeds at the new facility in British Columbia (LNG Canada)

“We’re pleased to announce that today, in a well-coordinated effort with HaiSea Marine personnel and tugboats, British Columbia Coast Pilots and Pacific Pilotage Authority Canada, with support from the Canadian Coast Guard and Canada Border Services Agency, our marine team welcomed for the first time an LNG carrier to the LNG Canada facility in Kitimat,” the company wrote online. Careful planning has gone into the process of moving the vessels along a 159-nautical mile route from an initial point near Prince Rupert to the terminal.

The initial LNG cargo arrived from Gladstone, Australia aboard the Maran Gas Roxana (95,194 dwt). It will be offloaded and used to test the systems during this phase of commissioning. It will cool down the pipes and storage tanks under cryogenic conditions preparing them for operations. LNG Canada reports it will only require this cargo and that this phase of testing and commissioning should last three to four weeks.

After the vessel is offloaded, the pilots will complete their testing process navigating the vessel back to the Pacific. HalSea Marine also completed the commissioning of its tugs which are being used to escort the vessels during the trip to and from the terminal. Canadian authorities are requiring as a precaution escorts for all the LNG carriers.

The project is close to realizing its key milestones as production and shipments begin after years of planning and construction.