A Chinese distributor of liquefied natural gas wants to build a processing facility near Terrace, next to the regional airport.
Top Speed Energy sent a letter to area residents on Oct. 16, seeking feedback on a facility that could process 150,000 tonnes of LNG per year – about 0.6 per cent of what’s manufactured at LNG Canada’s multi-billion-dollar facility in nearby Kitimat.
The project is small enough for the company to bypass federal and provincial environmental assessments, the letter said. It will instead submit a permit application to the BC Oil and Gas Commission and any required applications to the City of Terrace.
The facility would receive natural gas from a nearby pipeline, and then transport the finished product by truck to a terminal in Prince Rupert and on to domestic and international markets.
The number of containers is expected to be handled within the terminal’s existing capacity, and “is not a driver for terminal expansion,” said the letter, signed by Clark M. Roberts, the CEO of the firm’s Canadian arm, based in Burnaby.
The 1,187-acre plot of land, in a business park next to the Northwest Regional Airport, was bought in 2014 by Taisheng International Investment Services, which later signed a development agreement with the city. No additional roads will be built.
Residents and organizations have until Nov. 6 to send in written feedback. They can also request a meeting with the company.
This isn’t TSE’s first jump into LNG exports from B.C. to Asian markets. FortisBC, a utility company operating a liquefaction facility on the Fraser River near Vancouver, signed Canada’s first long-term supply agreement to produce LNG for export to China with TSE in July.
Under the two-year agreement, 53,000 tonnes of LNG will be shipped from the Tilbury facility in B.C. to China by summer 2021.
READ MORE: FortisBC eyes expansions after inking deal to send LNG by container to China
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TSE LNG Facility Letter by Brittany Gervais on Scribd