The 215th and final prefabricated piece has voyaged across the Pacific to the first Canadian liquefied natural gas export terminal, LNG Canada, under construction on the northern coast of British Columbia at Kitimat.
Fluor Corp., the engineering firm contracted to assemble the C$18 billion ($13.5 billion) operation, reported that the arrival from a Zhuhai manufacturing site in China finished a “critical phase” at the site more than 800 miles north of Vancouver.
Ship deliveries of the terminal pieces known as modules have been underway since March 2022, when the first arrival was a tower that stands 145-feet tall and weighs more than 500 tons.
Overseas module manufacturing and overseas deliveries take advantage of international cost savings, pare down delivery expenses by enabling transportation of jumbo terminal parts and reduce construction times at the project site.
The technique of using international services “underscores our commitment to delivering complex energy and chemicals projects,” said Fluor Energy Solutions executive Jim Breuer.
Fluor LNG services president Pierre Bechelany said the international prefabrication and assembly technique “enabled us to advance construction activities on-site while working with local communities, a skilled local workforce and limiting environmental impacts.”
Exports from the first 14 million metric tons/year Shell plc-led project remain on track to begin by 2025, The terminal is about 85% complete. A second phase that would double exports is in the planning and negotiation stages.
Labor talks between France-based global worker services giant Sodexo and staff of a Kitimat industrial camp threaten further delays for the export project and the 416-mile Coastal GasLink pipeline that would feed it.
About 450 housekeepers, kitchen staff, janitors, lounge servers, guest service agents, and maintenance personnel joined BC hotel and hospitality workers’ Unite Here Local 40 in April and voted overwhelmingly for a strike if Sodexo rejects pay demands. Mediated negotiations are underway.
The camp serves roughly 6,500 workers completing the terminal and pipeline projects at Kitimat.
