The proponents behind LNG Canada will make a final investment decision on whether to go ahead with a proposed second phase expansion of the project by the end of this year, Canada’s Natural Resources Minister said Thursday.
* The Canadian government is working together with British Columbia and the Shell-led LNG Canada to collectively progress the final items needed to support a decision, Minister Tim Hodgson said.
* Shell and its project partners on May 1 approved hundreds of millions of dollars (CDN) in incremental funding to help finalize critical work needed to get to a final investment decision, Hodgson said.
* The work that needs to be done includes further engineering, progressing agreements with First Nations, supply chain and procurement, as well as progressing construction work at LNG Canada’s marine offloading terminal, said LNG Canada CEO Chris Cooper.
* LNG Canada began operations in Kitimat, B.C. in June 2025. It has a capacity of 14 million metric tons per year when fully ramped up, and its proposed expansion would double that.
* Cooper also addressed on Friday the facility’s gas flaring volumes, which exceeded the regulatory limit in multiple months last fall and winter. He said high flare volumes are normal for LNG facilities in a startup phase, and the volumes of gas being released into the atmosphere should decline as LNG Canada reaches a steady state of operations.
(Reporting by Amanda Stephenson in Calgary)