The Canada Energy Regulator (CAR) said it had approved an application from Ksi Lisims LNG, a 12 mtpa floating LNG project developed by the Nisga’a Nation and partners, to export LNG for a period of 40 years.
Ksi Lisims LNG would export up to 22.4 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the form of LNG from its proposed facility at Wil Milit located on or near the northern point of Pearse Island, British Columbia, according to a letter released by the regulator dated December 14.
The license includes a maximum quantity of 778.3 billion cbm of natural gas over the 40-year term.
Ksi Lisims LNG must also get approval from the Minister of Natural Resources before the regulator can issue the export license.
For this application, the regulator said it had found that “there is enough natural gas in North America to ensure that Canadian demand for natural gas will be met over the 40 years of the license.”
CAR said the term of the license ends 10 years after the date of issuance of the license if the export of LNG had not started on or before that date.
“Ksi Lisims LNG advises that the commissioning of the export facility is anticipated to be as early as 2027, depending on the pace of regulatory approvals and a final investment decision,” the letter said.
Two FLNGs
In July last year, the Nisga’a Nation, Rockies LNG, a limited partnership comprised of Canadian natural gas producers, and Houston-based Western LNG filed the initial project description for Ksi Lisims LNG with the local and state governments.
After that, the partners filed the detailed project description with the BC Environmental Assessment Office in April this year.
The project is facing opposition from Lax Kw’alaams First Nation, documents posted on the website of the EAO’s website show.
According to the detailed project description, the project would include two permanently installed FLNG units which would have integrated storage with an aggregate capacity of about 450,000 cbm of LNG.
Also, the proponents are designing the project to be fully electrified.
The current estimated capital cost of the project is approximately C$8.3 to C$9 billion ($6.58 billion), the partners said.
“As the front-end engineering and design (FEED) for the project is still underway, the cost estimate is based upon several studies for similar near-shore floating LNG (FLNG) projects, which quote in the range of US$550 to US$600 per tonne per annum of LNG capacity,” they said.
Construction activities would take about 3 to 5 years.
KSI Lisims LNG would convert Canadian natural gas from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin of northeastern BC and northwest/central Alberta to LNG.
The partners would select either TransCanada Energy’s Prince Rupert Gas Transmission or Enbridge’s Westcoast Connector Gas Transmission to provide natural gas transportation services to the project, they said.