Woodfibre LNG granted permit for design changes

Woodfibre LNG received Canadian federal government approval for the changes to the LNG export project in British Columbia that were the result of the Squamish Nation process and ongoing design work.

In March 2016, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Catherine McKenna, issued a decision statement saying that the Woodfibre LNG project is not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects, Woodfibre LNG reminded in its statement.

However, in early 2017, Woodfibre LNG Limited applied to amend the Decision Statement to address proposed design changes to the Woodfibre LNG project.

Minister McKenna reissued the decision statement on March 7, 2018, for the Woodfibre LNG project, which included the design changes.

The design changes are the result of the Squamish Nation selection of air cooling as the cooling technology for the project as well as front-end engineering design (FEED) work.

The design changes include, changing from seawater cooling to air cooling of the plant, upgrading an existing intake on Mill Creek rather than constructing a new intake and, short-term use of water from Woodfibre Creek during construction.

The federal government’s revised decision statement follows the July 2017 approval of an environmental assessment certificate amendment by the Province of British Columbia.

The Woodfibre LNG project is located approximately 7 km west-southwest of Squamish, British Columbia, involves construction and operation of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility on the previous Woodfibre Pulp Mill site, which would have a storage capacity of 250,000 cubic meters and would produce approximately 2.1 million tonnes per year of LNG.

Woodfibre LNG Limited is a privately held Canadian company based in Vancouver, and a unit of Pacific Oil & Gas Limited, which is part of the Singapore-based RGE group of companies.