Shell’s £24bn Canadian gas project

SHELL has given the go-ahead for a £23.9bn project to sell gas from Canada around the world.

The project will see natural gas from vast basins piped to a plant in Kitimat, British Columbia, where it will be cooled to liquid form and shipped overseas, particularly to Asian markets.

The first liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the LNG Canada project is expected before 2025, ahead of a likely boom in demand for the fuel from buyers in China especially.

Shipping times to parts of Asia from Canada are about 40pc faster than from the US Gulf Coast, the oil supermajor said, giving the project a key advantage.

Anglo-Dutch Shell’s partners on the project are Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional, Petro China, Korea Gas Corp and Japan’s Mitsubishi.

The full cost has not been disclosed but has been estimated at around £23.9bn. Shell has a 40pc stake in the project.

Analysts expect demand for liquefied natural gas to grow from 290m tonnes in 2017 to nearly 450m tonnes in 2025.

Shell’s chief executive Ben van Beurden said: ‘We believe LNG Canada is the right project, in the right place, at the right time.’