LNG Canada has contractor to build export terminal in B.C.

LNG Canada announced Friday it has named a main contractor for the $40-billion export terminal and pipeline it plans to build in Kitimat.

A joint venture between the U.S.-based Fluor Corporation and JGC Corporation, headquartered in Japan, won the contract to be LNG Canada’s engineering, procurement and construction contractor, said Susannah Pierce, director of external relations for LNG Canada.

Pierce said the decision was based on the consortium’s plan for health, safety, First Nations and stakeholder management, financial strength, technical design, execution, contract price and schedule.

The contract award is conditional on LNG Canada’s partners — Shell, PetroChina, Kogas and Mitsubishi Corporation — making a final investment decision likely in the second half of this year.

Fluor has nearly 70 years of Canadian project experience, with more than 7,500 construction personnel working on Canadian projects in 2017, while JGC has experience in construction of more than 48 LNG trains around the world, said Pierce.

The EPC contractor will be tasked with ensuring that local people are hired first to fill the thousands of positions required over the five-year construction period, she added.

Last month, B.C. Premier John Horgan offered billions of dollars worth of tax breaks to liquefied natural gas producers in a bid to lure the Shell-led project to make a final decision about Kitimat, a move criticized by environmental groups as a reckless abandonment of the NDP’s climate promises.