LNG

Woodside Petroleum Chief Executive Peter Coleman told the LNG2019 conference in Shanghai that international energy majors needed to do more to demonstrate as China has already done that a lower-carbon world needs LNG.

Chevron Corp. has revived its almost dormant Canadian Kitimat liquefied national gas project originally proposed with Apache Corp. for Bish Cove in British Canada by applying to regulators for export capacity of up to 18 million tonnes per annum.

Chevron, the operator of two LNG export plants in Western Australia, now has Australian company Woodside Petroleum as its partner after Woodside purchased assets from Apache in 2014, including stakes in Wheatstone LNG in Australia and the Kitimat venture in BC.

“Chevron and Woodside have applied for a new licence for their Kitimat LNG plant in northern British Columbia that could see it nearly double in size,” said Chevron.

The companies have submitted the application to Canada’s National Energy Board with a revised plant design that may include up to three LNG processing Trains instead of two.

“Chevron and Woodside have re-evaluated the originally proposed two-Train, 10 MPTA LNG plant development concept, with a focus on improving Kitimat LNG cost of supply competitiveness relative to other global LNG projects,” Chevron said in a statement.

The re-launching of the Bish Cove project follows a final investment decision made in October 2018 by the Royal Dutch Shell-led LNG Canada joint venture.

Both plant sites are almost adjacent and are located about 650 kilometres north of the province’s largest city, Vancouver.

Shell and its Asian partners, including PetroChina, Petronas of Malaysia, Japan's Mitsubishi and Korea Gas corp. have started work at the brownfield site, also near Kitimat, and which had been an energy products terminal before being acquired by Shell in 2011 when the Chevron project was already progressing nearby.

The Shell project includes a US$5-billion pipeline of 670 kilometres being developed by TransCanada Corp. to bring the feed-gas from the Montney shale basin in northeast BC to the Pacific Coast.

Shell will initially produce 14 MTPA of LNG and has an option to increase its capacity to 28 MTPA.

Feed-gas for Chevron’s Kitimat plant will come from the large upstream shale-gas resources in the 322,000 net acres it has in the Horn River and Liard Basins of northeast BC.

Chevron will then transport the gas on the proposed Pacific Trail Pipeline to the site at Bish Cove.

The US major noted that its Kitimat LNG project was the most mature of the proposed Canadian LNG ventures and it also has an established partnership with the Haisla First Nation who live in the Kitimat area.

“We have key federal and provincial environmental approvals and licenses in place and substantial early work on the LNG site and pipeline route is underway,” said Chevron.

Chevron has a 50-50 partnership with Woodside in the Kitimat venture, though they have yet to disclosed cost estimates or investment and construction schedules.

The Kitimat joint venture said in March 2018 that it had been drilling some appraisal wells in the Liard Basin, though there has been little progress over several years on the plant development front.

However, some environmental and LNG export permits and First Nations benefits agreements are still in place for the liquefaction plant.

Chevron, the US major whose assets include with two large liquefied natural gas plants in Western Australia, said it signed a sales and purchase agreement with GS Caltex Corp. for the delivery of LNG to South Korea from Chevron’s global supply portfolio.

The Australian Gas Infrastructure Group (AGIG), one of the nation’s largest natural gas network and transmission companies, has successfully commissioned the Pluto Inlet Station, the new facility connecting the Pluto LNG plant in Western Australia to the Dampier-to-Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline.