Massive Canadian LNG project gets greenlight from owners

A C$40 billion ($31 billion) liquefied natural gas export project in Canada has received the final go-ahead from its project partners, LNG Canada said on Tuesday, with first gas expected before 2025.

Stakeholders Royal Dutch Shell , Malaysia's Petroliam Nasional Bhd , PetroChina Co Ltd , Korea Gas Corp and Japan's Mitsubishi Corp have given final investment decisions, LNG Canada said on its website.

Shell said that construction of the project at Kitimat will start immediately, with first LNG expected before the middle of next decade.

Mitsubishi said the project will initially export LNG from two processing units or trains for an estimated 14 million tonnes per annum, with the potential to expand to four trains in the future.

PetroChina and Kogas approved project financing late last week while Shell, Petronas and Mitsubishi made their announcements on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Yuka Obayashi and Osamu Tsukimori in TOKYO, Jessica Jaganathan in SINGAPORE, Jane Chung in SEOUL and Julie Gordon in VANCOUVER; editing by Richard Pullin)