It’s costlier than the Canadian Pacific Railroad. Or the TransCanada Highway.And it’s coming on stream in 2024, not 2025.That’s because the largest privately funded infrastructure project in Canadian history — the massive LNG Canada terminal at Kitimat — will begin start-up in early 2024, almost a year ahead of schedule..We remain well-positioned to deliver our first cargoes of lower-carbon, made-in-BC LNG by the middle of this decade.”LNG Canada CEO Jason Klein.In its year-end report, the company said the terminal and associated facilities are about 85% complete and it will begin “safe start-up activities”, including the manufacture of LNG, in 2024.In an online presentation, CEO Jason Klein said fine-tuning and testing the various moving parts of its massive West Coast facility would take about a year to complete before the first cargo could be shipped abroad.That means turning on the now-complete Coastal GasLink pipeline and synchronizing marine operations, including new zero-emission tug boats operated by the local Haisla First Nation.“This work must be undertaken before we can start shipping our LNG abroad. We remain well-positioned to deliver our first cargoes of lower-carbon, made-in-BC LNG by the middle of this decade,” he said..It will mark a significant milestone for Canada’s upstream natural gas industry, as well as the nascent LNG sector on the West Coast. It will also provide an outlet for Western Canadian producers to diversify away from the US as their only export market.With an initial capacity of about 1.8 billion cubic feet (bcf) per day, it will represent a little more than 10% of Canada’s 17.8 bcf per day of production. A second phase will double that to about 3.6 bcf per day.By comparison, BC presently produces a little less than six bcf per day.And though the $16 billion terminal itself is more or less on budget, overruns on other major segments — notably the Coastal GasLink pipeline — have pushed the overall project cost up near $48.3 billion for the project’s first phase..The CPR cost about $52 million in its day, or about $1 billion today. Likewise, the TransCanada Highway took about 20 years to complete at a cost of about $100 million or $1 billion in modern terms..By comparison the CPR cost about $52 million in its day, or about $1 billion today. Likewise, the TransCanada Highway took about 20 years to complete at a cost of about $100 million or $1 billion in modern terms.The impact on the economies of BC and Alberta will be equally as significant. Both are looking to LNG Canada to provide a release valve to increase production while claiming emissions reduction credits under Article 6 of the Paris Accord — although it was never intended to cover exports of fossil fuels.Energy shipped from LNG Canada to Asia is expected to offset up to 90 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year, or the equivalent of shutting down 40 to 60 coal fired plants in China — an amount equal to the entire emissions footprint of British Columbia today.That comes after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2022 infamously quipped there “has never been a strong business case” for LNG exports, to Europe or anywhere else. That is, unless he knows something Shell Canada, Petronas, Petronas-China, Mitsubishi and KoGas don’t.
