LNG Canada contracts BAM to build new Rio Tinto wharf

BAM International, together with Canada’s JJM Construction and a U.S. company Manson Construction has been awarded the contract to build the new Rio Tinto Aluminium BC Works wharf on behalf of LNG Canada.

This wharf will replace the existing Rio Tinto Terminal B, used for import and export of raw materials and finished products for Rio Tinto’s ongoing operations, that needs to be relocated due to the planned LNG export terminal in Kitimat, British Columbia, approximately 600 km northwest of Vancouver.

The project value amounts to €95 million ($111.8 million) 50 percent of which is for BAM.

BAM said the construction of the wharf will take 18 months and commence depending on final confirmation by LNG Canada.

The wharf, for Rio Tinto Aluminium BC Works, will include a berth for barges. Both elements will be built on more than 400 steel piles with a concrete deck of approximately 20,000 m³.

LNG Canada is joint venture leading the development of an LNG export project in Kitimat. Shell holds a 50 percent stake in the C$40 billion ($31.8 billion) project, with other partners being PetroChina, Kogas and Mitsubishi Corporation.

The project participants last year delayed the FID as they looked to reduce the cost in response to low prices, and the decision is expected to be made in 2018.

Construction of its facility in Kitimat, British Columbia would be completed in two phases.

The first phase of the project will take approximately five years to complete the first two of four LNG trains with the capacity to produce 6.5 million tons of LNG per year each. The facility would later be expanded with the addition of two more trains, for a total estimated production capacity of 26 mtpa.

1 EUR = 1.17641 USD