Imperial Oil Canada and ExxonMobil Canada have filed with the National Energy Board an application for an export permit for a potential new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility.
The jointly-owned entity, named WCC LNG—which stands for West Coast Canada—is for a possible terminal either in Kitimat or Prince Rupert.
“Basically what that is, is an application for permission to potentially export up to 30 million tonnes a year of liquefied natural gas for a period of 25 years,” said Imperial Oil spokesperson Pius Rolheiser. But he emphasized that filing for this permit does not mean the companies are set to go ahead with any construction or even a decision on actually moving forward to build anything.
“It will help us in our continuing engagement with First Nations, regulators, potential customers, potential pipeline companies,” he said. “We’re probably years away from a final investment decision.”
He said so far the company is looking at sites both in Prince Rupert and Kitimat.
Investigative permits were received for both communities last year.
Rolheiser also said that the site in Prince Rupert being explored is called Grassy Point.
The B.C. government asked for expressions of interest on the Grassy Point land earlier this year and Imperial Oil responded to that.
He didn’t say which land was being pursued in Kitimat.
The application for 30 million tonnes of LNG export a year compares to the other largest LNG proposal for the Kitimat area, LNG Canada, which is the Shell Canada-led project. They already have an export application in place, theirs for 24 million tonnes a year.
Imperial Oil with ExxonMobil’s possible proposal joins a wealth of other possible projects on the north coast.
Kitimat LNG also has an export licence for 10 million tonnes a year. That’s a proposal from Apache Canada and Chevron Canada.
Douglas Channel Energy, a co-op of various groups including the Haisla, also have a 20 year export licence.
While preliminary work has been going on for many of these projects in the Kitimat area, final investment decisions on the proposals have not been made.