LNG Canada project passes mid-way point
Three years after taking a final investment decision (FID) on Canada’s first major liquefied natural gas project, the LNG Canada consortium said October 6 the C$40bn (US$31.7bn) project was more than 50% complete.
“We’re moving swiftly towards commissioning and start-up, and to fulfilling our promise of delivering a world-class LNG facility in Kitimat, in the traditional territory of the Haisla Nation, benefitting British Columbians and Canadians for decades to come,” the consortium said in a statement on its website.
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Getting to 50% hasn’t been easy, LNG Canada said, with impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic creating challenges not only at the project site in Kitimat, on the northern coast of BC, but also at fabrication yards in Asia, where the facility’s more than 200 modules are now under construction.
“And we remain very concerned about cost and schedules increases disclosed by TC Energy to complete its Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline that will connect to our facility,” the statement said. “But with support from First Nations, local communities and businesses, and working with all levels of government, LNG Canada has continued to reach major milestones, safely and on schedule.”
Among those recent milestones were the arrival in June of the first of two cryogenic heat exchangers and a pair of pre-cooler units and the late August raising of the roof on the terminal’s first LNG storage tank.
Since LNG Canada took FID on October 1, 2018, it and its contractors and sub-contractors have awarded C$3.5bn in contracts and procurement orders to businesses in BC. Of that total, more than C$2.7bn has been awarded to First Nations-owned businesses and local area businesses.
More than 4,000 workers are now employed on-site at Kitimat by LNG Canada’s prime contractor, the JGC-Fluor joint venture, and its sub-contractors, while more than 4,500 are working across the eight construction spreads of the 670-km CGL pipeline project.