Delivering a Lower Carbon Canadian LNG Project to Meet Global Energy Demand

Mr. Zebedee gave a candid account of his company’s unusually smooth development process in British Columbia, where resource projects often meet strong opposition. LNG Canada is the country’s first large-scale LNG export facility, and the largest private sector investment in Canadian history. Now in its second year of construction, the four trains will eventually deliver 28 million tons of LNG annually, destined primarily for Asian markets.

He said that perhaps the most important decision was to put environmental and social interests on a new footing. LNG Canada first focused on building relationships—inviting the community to co-create a charter, taking time to understand indigenous values and, in the absence of treaties, acknowledging indigenous rights, whether proven in court or not. Diversity is a common thread throughout the organization. The leadership team has always and training women in the construction trades. The company also ensures that indigenous people have priority for contracting and procurement.

From a technical standpoint, the primary issue was whether to use electric drive or gas turbines for power and liquefaction. The all-electric option would have required significant transmission upgrades, power production and procurement, and was challenging from a capital cost perspective. He said it would have resulted in major schedule delays, but that the all-gas option would have resulted in unacceptably higher greenhouse gas emissions. The LNG Canada team decided on a hybrid option—using highly efficient Baker Hughes aeroderivative LMS100 gas turbines for the liquefaction trains, with auxiliary power from BC Hydro renewable energy. The facility will also use Shell’s dual mixed refrigerant technology to make the project even more efficient.

This approach will result in the lowest CO2 emissions per ton of LNG anywhere in the world— about 55% lower than the average facility, and 35% lower than the next best.