Pacific NorthWest LNG Terminal

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Pacific NorthWest LNG Terminal, also known as Lelu LNG Terminal, is a cancelled (confirmed) LNG export terminal in Canada.

Location

Table 1: Location details

Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Pacific NorthWest LNG Terminal	Lelu Island, Port Edward, British Columbia, Canada	54.2, -130.289 (approximate)

The map below shows the approximate location of the terminal:

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Project Details

Table 2: Infrastructure details

mtpa = million tonnes per year

Name	Facility type	Status	Capacity	Total terminal capacity	Offshore	Associated infrastructure
Pacific NorthWest LNG Terminal	export	cancelled (confirmed)	18 mtpa	18.0 mtpa	False	–

Table 3: Cost

Name	Facility type	Cost	Total known terminal costs
Pacific NorthWest LNG Terminal	export	–	–

Financing

No financing data available.

Table 4: Project timeline

FID = Final Investment Decision, used by some developers to indicate a project will move forward

Name	Facility type	Status	Proposal year	FID year	Construction year	Operating year	Inactive year
Pacific NorthWest LNG Terminal	export	cancelled (confirmed)	–	–	–	–	2017 (cancelled)

Ownership

Table 5: Ownership

Name	Facility type	Status	Owners	Parent companies	Operator
Pacific NorthWest LNG Terminal	export	cancelled (confirmed)	Pacific NorthWest LNG Ltd [100%]	Petroliam Nasional Bhd	–

Background

In 2013, Pacific NorthWest LNG Ltd, a company owned by Malaysia's Petronas and Japan's JAPEX, applied for a license to export up to 19.68 mtpa of LNG from a proposed facility on Lelu Island, BC. The first two trains would produce 13.12 mtpa and begin operating in late 2018. The cost of constructing the first two trains was estimated between CAN$9 and 11 billion. A third train would produce an additional 6.56 mtpa and begin operating in 2020.

Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) began its review of the proposed Pacific NorthWest LNG in April, 2013. The review of the LNG facility was halted five times due to different issues, including a need for further scientific information.

In 2014, the license was awarded.

In 2015, the company reached a conditional FID. The project was dependent on a positive regulatory decision on the environmental assessment.

In 2016, the company applied for a new license to export LNG. This application was for 40 years instead of 25 years, and it proposed that the first two trains would produce 14.5 mtpa, and the third train would add an additional 7.25 mtpa, for a final capacity of 21.75 mtpa. First export from the project was now expected in 2020. The new application outlined an expanded ownership structure, now comprised of Sinopec, IndianOil, and PetroleumBrunei in addition to existing partners Petronas and JAPEX. The license was awarded the same year.

After the Canadian federal government approved the project in September 2016, the backers delayed the final investment decision until summer 2017. Though the Nisga’a Lisims government signed economic benefits agreements with both the pipeline backer and the province, a coalition of indigenous leaders, politicians, scientists, fishermen, and others has signed a declaration to protect Lelu Island and the Skeena River, BC’s second-largest salmon-bearing waterway, from industrial development such as the Pacific NorthWest LNG facility.

Malaysia's Petronas announced it delayed its final decision on Pacific Northwest LNG despite speculation the project’s backers would decide spring 2017.

In July 2017 Petronas and its partners said they were abandoning the project, citing in a press release "prolonged depressed [gas] prices and shifts in the energy industry".

Opposition

Opponents claim approving Pacific Northwest will make it impossible for B.C. and Canada to meet new emissions reduction standards. Running the plant would release 5.28 million tons of carbon dioxide a year.

New Democratic Party (NDP) leader John Horgan came out against the Pacific Northwest LNG in early 2016. The Green Party oppose LNG development in general.

In November 2015 members of the Lax Kw'alaams First Nation camped at the site of the proposed LNG facility to prevent further research.

"We want to make sure nothing gets contaminated or in the way natural habitat, whether it's salmon or shellfish or eelgrass," said Clifford White, chief councillor of the Gitxaala First Nation.

The Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition and other groups have raised concerns about the risk to salmon habitat on Flora Bank, an area located next to Lelu Island, which could be impacted by the LNG port.

Many in the First Nations community fear the LNG will destroy salmon nursing grounds, the foundation of traditional fishing, and aquaculture harvesting. The island sits neighbors a sandbar where tall eelgrass grows that protects juvenile salmon as they adjust from the fresh Skeena River water to the salty Pacific.

The Gitwilgyoots Tribe launched their court challenge October 2016 to have the federal government’s approval of the LNG facility overturned.

In January 2017 the Lax Kw’alaams Band signed an impact benefit agreement worth approximately $1 billion over 40 years. The band said in 2015 that it would receive an initial payment of $28 million.The tribe asked the federal government establishes an environmental committee with First Nations members.

In exchange the Lax Kw’alaams Band would support the LNG project. According to documents filed in federal court by the Gitwilgyoots Tribe on May 2017 the band council suppressed scientific research it had commissioned when the research report did not support the band’s position on the project. Members of the Gitwilgyoots Tribe also argue the band has no authority to approve the project.

More than 130 scientists questioned the science behind the CEAA environmental assessment of the proposed Pacific Northwest LNG. These fish and wildlife biologists from Canada, the U.S., and Norway made their concerns in a joint letter. Of primary concern is the salmon. "You couldn't find a worse location to develop in terms of risks to fish. The CEAA report does not acknowledge that this LNG proposal is located on critical habitat of Canada's second largest wild salmon watershed", said a representative of the Skeena Fisheries Commission."The CEAA draft report for the Pacific Northwest LNG project is a symbol of what is wrong with environmental decision-making in Canada," the letter states

Industry Groups

• Independent Contractors and Businesses Association of B.C.

Articles and Resources

Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of LNG terminals, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Gas Infrastructure Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.