Incoming LNG tanker marks near completion of Kitimat export terminal​on March 27, 2025 at 11:04 pm

VICTORIA — With so much anxious news on the economic front, one positive development worth noting is unfolding on the North Coast of B.C. this week.

As of mid-morning Thursday, a liquefied natural gas carrier was in the Pacific off Haida Gwaii, bound for Kitimat, having loaded earlier this month at a terminal in Queensland Australia.

If all goes according to schedule, the Maran Gas Roxana, Greek-flagged and 300 metres long, will pass through Dixon entrance and pick up a pilot at Triple Island, south of Prince Rupert.

Then, escorted by state-of-the art tug HaiSea – battery powered, and jointly owned by SeaSpan and the Haisla First Nation – the carrier will proceed up Douglas Channel to Kitimat and begin offloading its cargo of LNG.

Kitimat’s LNG Canada terminal is built for export. But first, its storage tank must be chilled to the temperature (in the range of minus 169 C) where natural gas liquefies and stays that way.

The cooling process is expected to take three to four weeks, according to a recent report by Quinn Bender in the Prince Rupert-based Northern View newspaper.

Once the cooling is done, the LNG Canada terminal, already 95 per cent complete, will be almost ready to go into production.

The startup date is not yet set. But come summer, LNG Canada is expected to begin shipping out cargoes, each valued in the $150 million to $220 million range, every two days or so.

“This is a very significant opportunity for us to diversify our markets,” Energy Minister Adrian Dix said Wednesday. “It couldn’t have come along at a better time.”

He’s right about that. With the whole country focused on the need to diversify markets and reduce dependence on the U.S., B.C. can for the first time send its natural gas somewhere other than the domestic market or the U.S.

The province can also begin reaping a revenue windfall. This year’s provincial budget forecasts the treasury will collect a combined $3.3 billion in natural gas royalties over the next three years, up from about $600 million last year.

Not just here in B.C.: LNG Canada is expected to process significant amounts of natural gas from Alberta and Saskatchewan as well.

The New Democrats can take credit for getting LNG Canada to the point where it begins to pay off, here and elsewhere.