Canadian midstream player Altagas said Thursday it had taken a final investment decision for the North Pine NGL facility in British Columbia, setting the stage for the company to proceed with its planned 1.2 million mt/year LPG export terminal on the Canadian Pacific Coast.
"We are excited to move forward with our North Pine facility," Altagas CEO David Harris said in an earnings release, adding the project will be connected to the company's existing infrastructure in the Montney basin in northeast British Columbia and will also have access to the CN Rail network that will supply propane to the proposed Ridley Island LNG Export Terminal.
The FID was taken Wednesday and will entail the construction of two separate NGL separation trains, each capable of processing a total of 20,000 b/d of propane and NGL mix, he said.
The facilities will be located some 40 km (25 miles) northwest of Fort St. John with the first train due for startup in second-quarter 2018. The second train is expected to follow after completion of the first train, Altagas said.
Capital cost of the first train and related pipeline work is estimated to be C$125 million to C$135 million ($95 million to $102 million), it said.
Separately, Altagas on Tuesday received a 25-year licence from the National Energy Board to export up to 1.35 million mt/year from the LPG facility at Ridley Island, the company said.
"We expect to take a FID for the facility in fourth-quarter 2016. The FEED [front-end engineering and design] study has been completed and request for proposals to supply and install major equipment have been issued," Harris said.
Altagas is targeting to start the LPG facility in the second half of 2018 and the company already has a memorandum of understanding with Japan's Astomos Energy Corp. for the purchase of at least 50%, or 600,000 mt/year, of the total planned output, he said.
