TC Energy’s Coastal GasLink is moving forward with works on the giant pipeline that will supply natural gas to the Shell-led LNG Canada export terminal, as it enters the final year of construction.
Coastal GasLink said in a construction update last week that the overall progress on the project had reached 81.2 percent completion as of the end of November.
Some of the most notable achievements this year include the 100 percent pipe install in sections 1 and 4, the completion of the Wilde Lake compressor station, and the start of pipe install at Cable Crane Hill, which has reached 45 percent pipe install ahead of schedule, it said.
To date, Coastal GasLink has installed more than 490 km of pipe across the 670-km route, according to the firm.
“Overall, our team has spent more than 38 million hours working on this project, with more than 6,000 women and men employed at our peak,” the firm said.
The pipeline will have the capacity to transport 2.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day (bcf/d) from Groundbirch, BC to Kitimat, with the potential to boost it further.
TC Energy expects to reach mechanical in-service of the pipeline by the end of 2023 but the costs will significantly rise.
In July, LNG Canada and TC Energy reached a revised deal for the pipeline. The project now has a price tag of C$11.2 billion.
However, the project costs continue to rise and TC Energy said in November that the firm expects a “material increase in project costs” and TC Energy’s corresponding funding requirements.
As per the LNG Canada plant in Kitimat, the project is more than 70 percent complete.
The first phase of the giant LNG Canada project includes building two liquefaction trains with a capacity of 14 mtpa.
LNG Canada expects to deliver its first cargo by the middle of this decade.
Besides operator Shell, other partners in LNG Canada are Malaysia’s Petronas, PetroChina, Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation, and South Korea’s Kogas.