TC Energy’s Coastal GasLink pipeline, which will supply natural gas to the Shell-led LNG Canada terminal, has achieved 100 percent pipe installation across the entire project route.
The 670 kilometers long pipeline will have the capacity to transport 2.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day (bcf/d) from Groundbirch, BC to Kitimat, in the first phase.
Coastal GasLink said in its latest construction update that the “final ‘Golden Weld’ took place at the base of Cable Crane Hill in Section 8 West earlier this month.”
This milestone means that all 670 kilometers of pipe has been welded, coated, lowered into the trench, rigorously tested, and backfilled, it said.
“From the Wilde Lake compressor station near Dawson Creek to our metering station in Kitimat, physical construction on the project is now complete,” it said.
“The work is the last step before mechanical completion which is well on track for our year-end target and advances Coastal GasLink as Canada’s first direct path for LNG to international markets,” the firm said.
The price tag of the giant pipeline has increased substantially over the years and TC Energy now estimates costs for the first phase of its pipeline to reach C$14.5 billion.
As per the LNG Canada plant, the project built by JGC Fluor was about 85 percent complete in July and during the same month it completed LNG tank hydro testing at the project site in Kitimat, British Columbia.
Besides Shell, other partners in Canada’s first LNG export terminal include Malaysia’s Petronas, PetroChina, Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation, and South Korea’s Kogas.
The first phase of the LNG Canada project includes building two liquefaction trains with a capacity of 14 mtpa in Kitimat.
Shell and its partners and are also evaluating the second phase of the project.