‘Pivotal’ move for Canada’s first LNG export facility to come online

With the first natural gas feed and flaring, LNG Canada, a joint venture company encompassing Shell, Petronas, PetroChina, KOGAS, and Mitsubishi, is taking a key action toward putting into operation mode its liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal in Kitimat, Canada’s British Columbia (B.C.). 

Since LNG Canada has disclosed its plans to introduce natural gas to its Kitimat facility for the first time, after taking delivery of a shipment of refrigerants, the beginning of operations is becoming visible on the project’s horizon, as anticipation grows over its potential to put the Great White North on the map of LNG exporting countries.

After natural gas is received from the Coastal GasLink pipeline and all safety checks are out of the way, a small flare pilot is expected to be activated at the vapor flare tower. This will be followed by low-level flaring occurring over several weeks before more visible flaring.

The introduction of natural gas and flaring activities marks “a pivotal step” in the Shell-led project’s safe start-up program, according to the joint venture, which is preparing to ship its first cargoes of made-in-B.C. LNG by the middle of 2025 from Canada’s first large-scale LNG export facility. 

The operator explains that flaring, as “a critical safety system and part of safe facility operations,” is normal during facility start-ups and shutdowns but happens much less frequently during steady operations, thus, the same is expected at this project, which is said to be one of the largest energy projects in Canadian history.

“When our facility starts up for the first time, an elevated flare flame will be visible, and there may be instances of associated visible smoke. This is expected and part of safely starting up our LNG export facility. As the facility’s equipment settles into its regular operating range, flaring frequency along with any associated visible smoke will occur much less frequently,” elaborated LNG Canada.

The construction work at the first production train, which kicked off in 2018, was finished in July 2024. This project entails a natural gas receiving and LNG production unit and a marine terminal capable of accommodating two LNG carriers, a tugboat dock, and LNG loading lines.

Aside from this, LNG Canada will contain LNG processing units, storage tanks, a rail yard, a water treatment facility, and flare stacks. The production capacity will be 14 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) from the first two trains, but this could be expanded to four trains in the future.