Kitimat may be a small city on the coast of British Columbia but it’s quickly becoming a major player in Canadian industry. Score another for Kitimat with the Kitimat LNG project.
Apache Corp. (APA), the second-largest US independent oil and natural gas producer by market value behind market leader Anadarko Petroleum (APC), has teamed up with Chevron Canada for the Kitimat LNG project. The project will create a state-of-the-art $25 billion pipeline and processing plant that will feed natural gas from Apache’s Horn River and Liard fields in British Columbia, with 19 trillion cubic feet (ft.³) of recoverable natural gas. Kitimat LNG will be a producer-owned export facility and receive supplies from additional producing areas in British Columbia and Alberta.
Kitimat, meaning “People of the Snow” in the Tsimshian Indian language, has a population of just over 10,000 and is in one of the only wide, flat valleys on the British Columbia coast. The city was built in the 1950s when Alcan developed hydroelectric facilities to support a local aluminum smelting industry.
Kitimat: A Booming Area
Kitimat boasts a number of major projects, including a Rio Tinto Alcan $3.5 billion smelter modernization to increase ingot production. Also, a $1.3 billion pipeline will be built from the existing Pacific Trail pipelines, part of the Spectra Energy West Coast pipeline system, about 14 km to a natural deep water ice harbor called Bish Cove, near Kitimat.
The Douglas Channel Energy Partnership is building a small-scale barge-based LNG facility on the west side of Douglas channel. Cascadia Materials is a leader in quarry, sand and gravel operations and will build a processing and export terminal. LNG Canada is building a $12 billion LNG export facility in a joint venture with Korea Gas Corporation, Mitsubishi and Petro China.
Coastal Gas Link is a proposed 700 km pipeline between Dawson Creek and the proposed LNG Canada facility. Enbridge is involved in environmental engineering in support of a new marine terminal and twin pipelines that are part of the $6 billion Northern Gateway Project. An electric dam, run by Kitimat Renewable Energy Corp., with a capacity of 53.1 MW is being tied into the Rio Tinto Alcan transmission line at Kildala Arm. Finally, Kitimat Clean is building a large oil refinery in Matt Valley to process crude oil by pipeline.
Expected Output
The natural gas partnership will build a plant with a capacity of 5 million metric tons per year. The Kitimat location will have an LNG facility, including storage, marine on-loading facilities and natural gas liquefaction. Most LNG will be shipped to Asia Pacific markets and, as the project hits its stride, it is expected the facility will have 5 to 7 shipments a month. The project is expected to be completed in 2016.
