Chinese LNG distributor proposes LNG processing facility in Terrace
Brittany Gervais | View original article at Victoria News
A Chinese distributor of liquefied natural gas wants to build a processing facility near Terrace, next to the Northwest Regional Airport.
Containerized LNG could be the latest product to be manufactured at the Skeena Industrial Development Park in Terrace. (Taisheng International Investment Services photo)
Top Speed Energy sent a letter to area residents on Oct. 16, seeking feedback on a facility that could process 150,000 tonnes of LNG per year – about 0.6 per cent of what’s manufactured at LNG Canada’s multi-billion-dollar facility in nearby Kitimat.
The project is small enough for the company to bypass federal and provincial environmental assessments, the letter said. It will instead submit a permit application to the BC Oil and Gas Commission and any required applications to the City of Terrace.
The facility would receive natural gas from a nearby pipeline, and then transport the finished product by truck to a terminal in Prince Rupert and on to domestic and international markets.
The number of containers is expected to be handled within the terminal’s existing capacity, and “is not a driver for terminal expansion,” said the letter, signed by Clark M. Roberts, the CEO of the firm’s Canadian arm, based in Burnaby.
The 1,187-acre plot of land, in a business park next to the Northwest Regional Airport, was bought in 2014 by Taisheng International Investment Services, which later signed a development agreement with the city. No additional roads will be built.
Residents and organizations have until Nov. 6 to send in written feedback. They can also request a meeting with the company.
This isn’t TSE’s first jump into LNG exports from B.C. to Asian markets. FortisBC, a utility company operating a liquefaction facility on the Fraser River near Vancouver, signed Canada’s first long-term supply agreement to produce LNG for export to China with TSE in July.
Under the two-year agreement, 53,000 tonnes of LNG will be shipped from the Tilbury facility in B.C. to China by summer 2021.
