Shell may have shelved its planned Prince Rupert LNG project on Ridley Island near Prince Rupert, but a pipeline that would have supplied natural gas to the plant remains an active project.
The Westcoast Connector, is best described as a corridor that could contain up to two, 48-inch pipelines running 850 kilometres from northeastern B.C.
The corridor would run to the north of Terrace and through the Nass Valley to the coast before turning south underwater and surfacing at selected locations.
It began as a Spectra Energy project and is now owned by Enbridge which bought Spectra last year.
“Enbridge will continue to advance commercial discussions and market to other industry participants,” said Enbridge official Jesse Semko in a statement.
“We continue to see LNG development as an excellent long term opportunity for Enbridge and B.C. natural gas.”
The provincial government in 2014 gave the project an environmental assessment certificate.
The estimated capital cost is $7.5 billion and would generate up to 13,400 person-years of direct employment.
Enbridge is so far silent on which prospective LNG plant developers it has been speaking with or whether the Westcoast Connector would require a new round of environmental approvals for new end locations.
But Aurora LNG, a joint venture between Nexen Energy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of China National Offshore Oil Corporation, and Inpex Corp., a developer of LNG projects in Australia and Indonesia, held open houses in Prince Rupert earlier this year as part of the public comment period required to gain environmental approval.
That project so far has not indicated who would supply natural gas to its planned site on provincial crown land located on Digby Island.
Aurora, at full capacity, would process 24 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas a year.
“The natural gas would come via pipeline from our natural gas producing assets in northeast BC to the proposed Digby Island site,” said Nexen official Brittney Prince.
“We are currently investigating a number of options and potential routes for this pipeline, but no decisions have been made.”
In addition to environmental approval, the provincial government has also been signing benefits agreements with First Nations along the Westcoast Connector route.
At last count, 15 of 19 First Nations along the proposed Westcoast Connector pipeline route have natural gas pipeline benefits agreements with the province, and four First Nations have brought their agreements into effect.
Those four First Nations, the Kitselas just east of Terrace, the Gitanyow north on Hwy37 North, the Metlakatla on the north coast and the Takla north of Fort St. James, have received $1.369 million in initial payments, indicates information provided by the province.
Should construction proceed, more than $45 million would then flow to First Nations along the Westcoast Connector route.
Each nation would receive a share of $10 million a year once the pipeline goes into operation.
In announcing it was cancelling Prince Rupert LNG plans Shell, which inherited the project when it bought the BG Group, the company said it would instead concentrate on its majority-owned LNG Canada project at Kitimat.
Although a preferred group of contractors was chosen in 2014, Shell now says a renewed search is underway through competitive bidding to find a new lead contractor.
That project is on hold, however, because of a continued slump in the price of LNG.