Canadian utility and operator of the Tilbury LNG facility in the province of British Columbia, FortisBC, and its partner Seaspan Energy, part of Seaspan, have won approval from the government of Canada for their planned Tilbury LNG jetty project.
FortisBC announced the approval in a statement issued on Thursday.
In March, Tilbury Jetty Limited Partnership received environmental approval for the Tilbury marine jetty (TMJ) project from the BC government.
The Impact Assessment Agency of Canada said in a separate statement it concurs with BC’s approval of the jetty project.
The government of Canada issued its final environmental assessment decision allowing the project to proceed.
“TMJ will now proceed with securing the necessary remaining approvals and permits and will work towards making a final investment decision for the project,” FortisBC said.
The TMJ project consists of building a jetty on the south arm of the Fraser River adjacent to FortisBC’s existing Tilbury LNG facility.
Once constructed, the TMJ will be the first facility on Canada’s west coast that will enable trans-oceanic vessels to fuel with LNG at the Port of Vancouver, according to FortisBC.
The jetty would provide berthing and loading facilities for LNG carriers and bunker vessels with a carrying capacity of up to 100,000 cbm.
In 2022, FortisBC signed an agreement with the Musqueam Indian Band that includes options for Musqueam to acquire equity ownership in the projects at Tilbury, subject to regulatory approvals and certain conditions precedent.
Tilbury LNG facility
Launched in 1971 with one 28,000-cbm tank, the Tilbury LNG facility already received several upgrades involving storage but also liquefaction facilities.
The Phase 1A expansion, commissioned in 2019, added a 46,000 cbm storage tank and LNG liquefaction capacity of 0.25 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to the Tilbury LNG facility.
The Phase 1B expansion is intended to serve growing demand for LNG as a marine fuel by increasing liquefaction capacity by up to 0.65 mtpa.
ForticBC is also planning the second expansion phase and this expansion has two components and serves two functions.
The first component is an additional storage tank of up to 142,400 cbm to provide a backup energy supply to the Lower Mainland, while the second component is additional liquefaction of up to about 2.6 mtpa, according to FortisBC.