Kitimat LNG - Oil and Gas Info

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Kitimat LNG
April 2011
Kitimat, BC, is the proposed home of Canada’s first
liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal. If approved,
this facility will prepare and ship natural gas from BC and
Alberta to markets across the Pacific Ocean.
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Kitimat was chosen as the site for the LNG facility because
its large and deep commercial port provides a close and
efficient gateway to the growing Asia Pacific market.
Access to Asian markets is important to the future of Canada’s natural gas industry. For
many years, Canada has sold natural gas to the U.S. But with the growth of shale gas
production (see November 2010 PatchWorks), the U.S. needs less Canadian gas. To
maintain its gas industry, Canada needs new markets and Asian countries like Japan,
China and South Korea have the potential to become strong customers. In particular,
Japan’s demand for LNG is expected to increase following the earthquake damage to
its nuclear power system.
Canada uses thousands of kilometres of underground pipelines to ship natural gas
from the producing regions of B.C. and Alberta to consumers throughout the U.S. But
getting Canada’s natural gas across the Pacific to Asia is more challenging. This is
where the Kitimat LNG facility comes in.
Because of its high volume and low weight, natural gas cannot be economically
shipped in large quantities without using a pipeline. To get around this problem, LNG
facilities, like the one proposed for Kitimat, cool the natural gas to a brisk -162° Celsius.
This compresses the gas into a liquid form.
The cooling process, called liquefaction,
th
reduces the gas to 1/600 of its original
volume, which makes shipping large quantities
much more efficient. LNG is then stored in
special tanks like these ones that work kind of
like a thermos to keep the LNG cold.
When the LNG arrives at its import destination, it is warmed up in a process called
regasification, which returns the LNG to a gaseous state. The natural gas is then
shipped to end markets by pipeline.
Originally, the Kitimat LNG facility was proposed as an import/ regasification facility, but
in 2008, when the vast scope of shale gas production became clear, Kitimat changed
its proposal to become an export terminal instead.
The Kitimat LNG facility is not yet approved, but those involved – oil and gas
companies Apache Canada, EOG Resources and Encana, the Haisla First Nation, and
various government agencies – are working together to move the project forward. The
goal is to begin shipping LNG by 2015.
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Coming up in
PatchWorks:
Kitimat oil facility
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