Thursday, June 18, 2015

Kitimat's LNG Canada proposal gets Federal CEAA and Provincial Approval

When it comes the province's highly anticipated LNG strategy, Wednesday delivered another positive step, with the delivery of the first of the major projects to make it through the environmental process.

On Thursday, LNG Canada announced that it had received the approval of both the Province and Federal government for their proposed terminal development in the Kitimat region.

The Shell led consortium of companies which is looking to build across the harbour from Kitamaat village outlined the details of the positive review on their website yesterday.

“We have made significant progress to advance our project over the past year, ... Receiving both provincial and federal approval of our Environmental Assessment is a critical milestone on our path to making a final investment decision. We could not have achieved this without input from the local community of Kitimat and First Nations, and we appreciate the local knowledge they shared with us.” -- Andy Calitz, CEO of LNG Canada upon word of approval of the LNG projects environmental assessment

Site location for LNG Canada's
proposed Kitimat terminal
The approval does come with a number of conditions, fifty of them from the Federal review another 24 outlined by the provincial government.

You can review the Federal background paper and conditions here, while the Province's notice of approval and their conditions can be review here.

The conditions which are binding involve a range of topics from fish habitat, migratory bird concerns and issues related to human health, greenhouse gas concerns are also among this listed, as is continued consultation with First Nations.

The latter may not be a hard issue to approach or find common ground on, LNG Canada highlighted the comments from Haisla Chief Councillor Ellis Ross, who expressed the approval of the Haisla for the what the project may bring their community.

“LNG Canada has engaged and consulted with the Haisla continuously for the last three years ... We support the LNG Canada project and recognize the benefits that every Haisla member will enjoy, from jobs and training opportunities to better community facilities and improved social conditions.”

LNG Canada is a consortium of four major energy companies, Shell Canada, PetroChina, Korea Gas Corporation and Mitsubishi. The group has not, as of yet, made a Final Investment Decision or indicated a commitment towards construction of the proposed terminal.

For the Prince Rupert area, at the moment the project closest to a finish line is the Petronas led Pacific NorthWest LNG terminal proposal, which announced a Conditional Investment Decision on June 12th and is currently involved with its own CEAA process.

However the Pacific NorthWest bid has been on pause for the last few weeks after the CEAA requested further information from LNG proponents related to a number of environmental issues.

That request for more information however did not hold back the company from providing a conditional  decision related to its proposed development, the background on where Petronas is at the moment when it comes to their project can be found here.

LNG Canada's Kitimat project is one of 19 proposed developments along the British Columbia coast, the majority of them are centred in the Northwest. You can review more items related to Wednesday's announcement below:

Northern Sentinel -- Environmental assessment certificate given to LNG Canada
Financial Post -- Royal Dutch Shell PLC secures environmental permit for B. C. LNG project, but with 50 conditions
Globe and Mail -- B.C. conditionally approves Royal Dutch Shell LNG project in Kitimat
Global BC -- Shell-led LNG Canada project in Kitimat gets environmental approval
Vancouver Sun -- Shell-led LNG Canada project gets environmental go-ahead from Ottawa, B.C.
Business News Network -- B. C. conditionally approves Royal Dutch Shell project in Kitimat

Cross posted from the North Coast Review

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