LNG Canada will take delivery of its cooldown LNG cargo as soon as 1 April as part of the final equipment testing phase of operations prior to bringing its $18 billion Kitimat liquefaction plant fully on-line and ready to deliver commercial volumes of super-chilled gas. The Maran Gas Roxana is scheduled to arrive from Australia. The cooldown period is expected to take 3 to 4 weeks.
The plant will be Canada’s first LNG export facility. At peak, the facility is expected to export 14 mtpa of LNG into the international market. LNG Canada expects to start delivering LNG cargoes by the middle of the year.
To date, the US has been the sole outlet for Canadian natural gas. The LNG plant will change that and likely result in less gas being moved across the US/Canada border.
According to US Energy Information Administration data, Canada will export about 8.6 Bcf/D, up from 8 Bcf/D a year ago and an average 7.5 Bcf/D for the previous 5 years (2018–2022). In 2002, Canada exported a record 10.4 Bcf/D.
LNG Canada is a joint venture between Shell, Petronas, PetroChina, Mitsubishi, and Kogas.
A rival LNG plant planned for Kitimat was unveiled in 2012 by partners Chevron and Apache. Apache sold its stake in the project to Woodside Petroleum in 2014. Seven years later, Chevron said it would no longer pursue the project. Woodside would also exit the project around the same time.
Including LNG Canada’s project, there are a total of seven LNG export projects at various stages of completion in Canada. These include Woodfibre LNG, where construction began in 2023 and completion is targeted for 2027; Cedar LNG where partners Pembina Pipeline and the Haisla Nation took final investment decision (FID) to move forward with the 3.3 mtpa project in June 2024; and Ksi Lisims, Tilbury and others still in the regulatory process and awaiting FID.
