Go Figure: The 14-million-tonne LNG Canada project and the numbers fuelling B.C.’s energy sector

LNG Canada, the country’s largest capital project this century, is due to begin shipping liquefied natural gas this summer. We look at some of the mind-boggling numbers around this new industry for B.C.

LNG Canada’s completed first phase is licensed to export up to 14 million tonnes of LNG annually, and will process up to 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, or 11% of Canada’s current daily production of 18.1 billion cubic feet. (Phase 2 of the project, should it be greenlighted, would double that capacity.) Canada is the world’s 5th largest natural gas producer.

In total there are 7 LNG export projects in B.C. in various stages of development that, should they all be completed, would be capable of producing 50.3 million tonnes of LNG per year.

It takes 46 billion cubic feet of natural gas, or 8% of the gas consumed per year by Canadian households, to create 1 million tonnes of LNG. Currently 39.4% of Canada’s gas output is exported, all of it by pipeline to the U.S.

FortisBC already operates two LNG facilities in B.C. Mt. Hayes near Ladysmith holds 1.5 billion cubic feet of LNG, enabling the utility to supply its Vancouver Island customers even during system interruptions. The company’s Tilbury Island plant in Delta, in operation since 1971, supplies the transportation industry as well as export markets and is being expanded with a 46,000 cubic metre storage tank.

Who owns LNG Canada?

Sources: LNG Canada, Government of B.C., Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, Natural Resources Canada, FortisBC, Woodfibre LNG, Cedar LNG