‘The success of our natural resource sectors is key to our success as a province,’ B.C. premier David Eby said
B.C.’s long-promised LNG export industry is poised to start shipping overseas this year.
After a decade in planning and construction, LNG Canada will send its first shipments from Kitimat to Asia, marking Canada’s entry into the global LNG market.
At the recent annual B.C. Natural Resources Forum in Prince George, Premier David Eby signalled his support for the nascent liquefied natural gas sector, calling LNG Canada “one of the biggest economic projects in Canadian history.”
Most of B.C.’s natural gas is extracted using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and liquefying it for ocean transport is energy intensive. Various infrastructure, including the publicly funded North Coast transmission power line, is being readied to service the LNG industry.
“The success of our natural resource sectors is key to our success as a province,” Eby said.
The first phase of LNG Canada, a liquefaction and export facility on the shores of the Douglas Channel in Kitimat, will be fully operational this year. It has been touted as the largest private investment in Canadian history.
The liquefaction and export plant in Kitimat is fed by the controversial Coastal GasLink pipeline, completed in late 2023 following years of opposition from Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and their supporters.
It will power its first phase of operations — producing about 14 million tonnes of LNG annually — by burning some of the gas it receives from Coastal GasLink. A second phase, possibly powered by hydroelectricity, would double production.
Teresa Waddington, a vice-president with LNG Canada, said the facility is more than 95 per cent complete and “commissioning and startup activities are well underway.”
“We remain on track to ship first cargoes by the middle of 2025,” Waddington said by email.
The gas will go mainly to Japan and South Korea. LNG Canada is a consortium of multinational companies, led by Shell Canada, that include Malaysia’s state-owned Petronas, Japanese tech giant Mitsubishi and Kogas, South Korea’s national gas company.
Waddington said the recent imposition of U.S. tariffs on Canadian energy demonstrates the importance of opening up new markets for Canadian resources.
“As world events continue to demonstrate, a reliable supply of responsibly produced energy should never be taken for granted. We’re proud to be part of the effort to deliver that energy while helping Canada diversify its export markets,” she said.
Both Shell and Petronas have significant fracking operations in B.C.’s northeast. Gas extraction to feed LNG Canada has already begun. In 2024, Shell did initial drilling work on 73 B.C. wells, roughly equivalent to the amount it has drilled over the previous six years combined, according to BOE Report, an industry publication.
Construction on Cedar LNG, a floating liquefaction and export facility majority owned by the Haisla Nation, started in July 2024.
The facility is being built a few kilometres from the larger LNG Canada development. In a recent update posted to its website, Cedar LNG said it expects construction to peak in 2026 and foreign-built components of the floating facility to arrive in 2028.
Cedar LNG will also receive its gas supply from the Coastal GasLink pipeline. It plans to export around three million tonnes of LNG a year.
To the Haisla Nation, the project represents a sorely needed source of revenue for a community long left out of any financial gains from resources.
Eby touted Cedar LNG as an “unprecedented economic opportunity for the region.”
“We also have the Nisga’a-led Ksi Lisims liquefied natural gas project, a nearly $10 billion investment,” Eby said.
Ksi Lisims LNG, a proposed liquefaction and export facility that would be built at the north end of Pearse Island, a few kilometres from the Nass River estuary near the Alaska border, is undergoing environmental assessment. If approved, the plant would produce up to 12 million tonnes of LNG annually.
The Nisga’a Lisims government and Texas-based Western LNG are partners in both Ksi Lisims and the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline that would supply it. Western LNG expects B.C.’s environmental assessment office will finalize its Ksi Lisims assessment report this spring.
Earlier this month, Western LNG announced it had raised more than $150 million for the plant and pipeline.
Like the Haisla, some Nisga’a leaders maintain LNG is a game-changer when it comes to economic opportunities.
But some neighbouring nations have expressed opposition.
Last summer, as preliminary construction of the pipeline began on Nisga’a lands, Gitanyow hereditary chiefs set up a blockade and announced the creation of an Indigenous protected area on lands the pipeline would cut through.
FortisBC continues to move through environmental review of its plans to expand its Tilbury Island facility in Delta. The project, according to the company’s description, would supply gas to overseas markets and provide fuel for ships in the greater Vancouver area, while also increasing the amount of fuel on hand in case of local emergency.
Last year, both the B.C. and federal governments approved FortisBC’s plans to build a new marine jetty. Now, the company needs approval to build infrastructure that would allow it to liquefy more gas.
According to the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office, the plans include construction and operation of “a new LNG storage tank with a working volume of up to 142,400 cubic metres, new liquefaction facilities with capacity of up to 7,700 tonnes per day of LNG production, natural gas receiving facilities and supporting infrastructure.”
The LNG plant would increase its annual output to more than three million tonnes.
Construction started last fall on Woodfibre LNG, majority-owned by Indonesian billionaire Sukanto Tanoto’s Pacific Energy Corporation, on the shores of Howe Sound, a few kilometres from Squamish.
According to Woodfibre’s website, it is working directly in the ocean “during the marine window of least risk,” a requirement of federal and Squamish Nation regulations. That window closes at the end of January.
In December, the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office found Woodfibre LNG was out of compliance with an order and that the company may be liable for an administrative penalty. Government inspectors also found the company was out of compliance with regulations around transport of its workers.
Woodfibre LNG was also “non-compliant with requirements related to storing hazardous materials, providing required documentation related to the death of a great blue heron and the release of project water into the marine environment that occurred due to insufficient capacity of the water treatment system during heavy rain periods in October at the project site,” according to the assessment office.
When in operation, Woodfibre will produce 2.1 million tonnes of LNG annually.
Matt Simmons is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter with The Narwhal. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.