LNG

Shell-led LNG Canada project has officially started producing liquefied natural gas at Train 1 of its export terminal in Kitimat, British Columbia, at around 4 am local time. The LNG tanker ‘Gaslog Glasgow’ is en route to the Kitimat terminal for loading, according to ship tracking data, and anticipated to arrive on June 29.

The liquefaction process at massive LNG Canada terminal in Kitimat will start over the weekend. A tanker is on route to collect the first cargo from the plant which will initially operate at 25% capacity.

Yantai Port Group, the Chinese cargo transportation, warehousing and harbour management company in the northeast province of Shandong, is taking part in three liquefied natural gas storage and terminal projects to be completed between 2022 and 2025.

Port executives said government approvals for the ventures were making their way through the regulatory process to be located in Yantai Port, one of China’s industrial and petrochemical hubs.

The current terminal project under construction involves a partnership with Shandong Poly-GCL Pan-Asia International Energy and the storage tanks are now being built.

The terminal developers are negotiating future LNG supplies and hosted a visit in March 2021 of a Canadian diplomatic delegation to view the progress of the LNG terminal build-out.

Yantai port is initially aiming to construct two sets of tanks of 316,000 cubic metres of storage and receiving capacity of around 6 million tonnes per annum.

Yantai Port and its joint venture firm Yantai LNG also plan to offer contracts for the building of two other facilities, each with 5 MTPA of capacity.

Yantai is regarded by the government in Beijing as a core platform of what it calls the Northeast Asia economic circle.

The port is an important economic development hub for the areas of the Bohai Sea Rim, the Yangtze River Delta and Shandong Province itself.

Investment is also planned for a separate 5 MTPA storage and terminal project backed by China National Petroleum Corp. with a start-up date set for 2023.

Yantai would take a 49 percent stake in that project with CNPC holding the majority share of 51 percent, likely through its Hong Kong-listed affiliate PetroChina.

LNG Canada, the export project in British Columbia under construction near Kitimat, has PetroChina as one of its shareholders.

Shandong Oil & Gas and Yantai Port have signed an agreement to cooperate on what would be the third import venture.

Shandong Oil & Gas will take the lead in completing the project’s 530-kilometres pipeline that would connect the terminal to cities across Shandong province and to the national gas grid.

The plan for the Shandong Oil & Gas and Yantai venture is to build six 200,000 cubic metres LNG storage tanks in two phases. 

Australian engineering and construction company, Clough, said it had won the contract to build the loadout line trestle off Kitimat in British Columbia for the Royal Dutch Shell-led LNG Canada project.

The Canadian National Energy Board said it was scheduling hearings over the next three months to consider a jurisdictional challenge of the approval of a pipeline needed to supply feed-gas to the LNG Canada project led by Royal Dutch Shell.

The Canadian National Energy Board (NEB) has decided to consider a jurisdiction claim by environmentalists that pipeline company TransCanada Corp. needs more than British Columbian provincial permits to build the Coastal GasLink feed-gas supply line for the Royal Dutch Shell-led LNG Canada project.

Royal Dutch Shell has outlined the main reasons why it had a compelling case for proceeding with the LNG Canada export project in British Columbia and it would come on stream at the site in Kitimat at a time of high global demand.

Civeo, the US workforce accommodation specialist based in Houston, said it was awarded contracts to supply temporary work camps at four locations along the Canadian Coastal GasLink pipeline conditional on the LNG Canada liquefaction and export project going ahead near Kitimat in British Columbia.

Petronas of Malaysia has taken a substantial stake in the Royal Dutch Shell-led LNG Canada project in British Columbia after cancelling its own venture in BC called Pacific Northwest LNG.

TransCanada Corp. said the National Energy Board had recommended government approval of a variance to the previously issued North Montney Mainline Project certificate, allowing construction to start on the $1.4 billion project originally linked to a cancelled LNG venture.