LNG Partners LLC, the outfit that has been contemplating an LNG export facility here for a couple of years, has now signalled it is ready to go for it.
It is a major player in an application to the National Energy Board for a licence to export liquefied natural gas from a plant in Kitimat.
And it wants to piggy-back on KM LNG’s application which is currently moving through the permitting process.
In a letter to the NEB, Vancouver lawyers Lawson and Lundell noted the actual applicant is the BC LNG Export Co-operative LLC.
That’s a 50:50 partnership between LNG Partners LLC - a Houston, Texas based company - and the Haisla Nation Douglas Channel LNG Limited Partnership.
The co-operative is registered in the Marshall Islands.
The actual liquefaction will be carried out by Douglas Channel Energy Project Gas Management in which the Haisla again have a 50 per cent share with the rest owned by LNG BC Projects Ltd. which is turn 100 per cent owned by LNG Partners LLC.
The co-operative will then sell the LNG to Pacific Rim markets.
The natural gas to be liquefied will be delivered through Pacific Northern Gas’ existing pipeline as per an option LNG Partners LLC have with PNG on its unused capacity in that line.
After noting the “threshold issues” the NEB will have to consider in the KM LNG application are the same as in the proposed co-operative application, Chris Sanderson QC suggests that both be dealt with at the June 7 hearing already scheduled for KM LNG.
“Specific questions of gas supply, other regulatory authorizations associated with supporting infrastructure and specific environmental effects can be considered separately in a proceeding specific to each applicant,” he added.
And given the small scale of the Douglas Channel Energy Project, he suggests those issues “can easily be dealt with through an expeditious written process.”
Accompanying the application is a project description report by Stantec Consulting.
That report explained there are two options being considered for an LNG facility:
The first is a barge-based plant which would either be moored or grounded at the project site - district lot 99 on the west side of the Douglas Channel about halfway between the RTA smelter and the proposed Northern Gateway oil terminal.
The alternative is a land-based liquefaction plant at the same location.
The current plan calls for a plant that can convert 125 million standard cubic feet of natural gas a day for an annual LNG production of about 900,000 tonnes, with an initial production of 700,000 tonnes per annum.
That’s considerably smaller than the KM LNG proposed production of five million tonnes a year.
The amount of natural gas also exceeds PNG’s spare capacity of 80 million scf/d.
The proposed site is owned by Rio Tinto Alcan as is the access road.
About 10 kilometres of pipeline would have to be built to connect to PNG’s existing line and the same length of power line to connect to BC Hydro.