Representatives from the BG Group, which is looking to construct an LNG terminal on Ridley Island, came to council on Nov. 13 to provide some details on the project.
Acting BG Canada president Steve Swaffield, who was joined by community relations advisor Herb Pond social performance coordinator Kathleen Williams, told council the terminal is still a long way from being a reality. Plans call for a final investment decision to come some time next year, with the environmental assessment to wrap up in 2014 and the feasibility and design phase to continue on through 2015.
“With a final decision not coming until mid-decade and with a four year construction window, we anticipate the first commercial LNG export to come in late 2019 or early 2020,” said Swaffield, noting that work is being done to address concerns raised by the board of directors.
“When we took the project to the board last time there were two concerns raised. The first was the ability to build the pipeline and the pipeline route. The second was the general operating environment in BC... We have done work and are taking back to the board a partnership with Spectra Energy that we believe will help with the pipeline concerns and we have done work on the permitting with both the federal and provincial governments.”
Construction of the terminal, which would have two LNG processing lines, would require 6,000 workers at its peak. Once operational, Swaffield says there would be 400 to 600 jobs created.
“The work is ongoing, but we have calculated that 90 to 95 per cent of those operations jobs would be skilled labour. Now we need to drill down and determine what trades those would be,” said Swaffield.
“A four year construction window should provide a lot of time for people to plan and get the training to fill those operating jobs that are coming,” added Pond.
Members of the BG Group will be taking the project out to the public next week with an open house scheduled for Nov. 19 from 5:30 p.m. to eight p.m. at the current school and on Nov. 20 at Northwest Community College beginning at 4:30 p.m.