Assisted by the LNG-powered tug HaiSea Kermode and other HaiSea Marine’s tugs, which serve the LNG Canada project, the 173,400-cbm LNG carrier, Maran Gas Roxana, arrived in Kitimat on Wednesday morning local time.
LNG Canada confirmed the arrival of the first LNG carrier to LNG Prime in a statement issued later on Wednesday.
“Maran Gas Roxana arrived carrying a cargo of liquefied natural gas that will be offloaded into our facility for equipment testing,” LNG Canada said.
“This activity is critical to our safe start-up and commissioning process in advance of our operations, and to achieving our first LNG export cargoes by the middle of 2025,” it said.
A spokesman for LNG Canada told LNG Prime last month that Maran Gas Roxana was traveling to the LNG Canada facility in Kitimat to deliver a cargo of LNG for equipment testing.
He said the delivery was expected in early April.
Prior to heading to Kitimat, the 2017-built LNG carrier picked up a cargo of LNG at Shell’s QCLNG plant on Curtis Island near Gladstone, Australia.
LNG Canada expects that the discharge of the LNG cargo may take three to four weeks to complete.
14 mtpa
Last year, LNG Canada also received a cargo of refrigerants (liquefied petroleum gas) onboard the tanker Gaschem Atlantic for cooldown activities.
In August 2024, LNG Canada introduced natural gas to the facility for the first time, from the new Coastal GasLink pipeline.
One of the largest private investments in Canadian history, LNG Canada will initially produce 14 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) LNG for export. With a proposed Phase 2 expansion, it plans to double its capacity to 28 mtpa.
LNG Canada is Canada’s first large LNG export facility.
Besides operator Shell, other partners in the project include Malaysia’s Petronas, PetroChina, Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation, and South Korea’s Kogas.
Contractor JGC Fluor is constructing the first phase of the project, which includes two liquefaction trains.
(This article was updated to include a statement by LNG Canada.)
