B.C. hopes to build first LNG ship-refuelling facility on the West Coast
Credit to Author: Harrison Mooney| Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2019 01:07:39 +0000
The Port of Vancouver is expected to become home to the first LNG ship-refuelling facility on North America’s west coast.
The B.C. government, the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority and FortisBC are studying options for the facility, hoping future cargo ships and cruise ships will be powered by natural gas instead of heavy bunker fuel or diesel.
Officials with the province and the Port of Vancouver said the exact location of the proposed facility has not been decided. It would be a full-service jetty that would fill up smaller refuelling vessels, which would in turn fuel the oceangoing vessels.
However, a good bet for location is the Fortis LNG plant on Delta’s Tilbury Island in the Fraser River, which already fuels five B.C. Ferries vessels and two Seaspan cargo ferries. A statement from the Premier’s office said Fortis is partnering with WesPac to develop a full-service jetty on Tilbury Island in the Fraser River. WesPac, meanwhile, lists among the major projects on its website a proposal, still in the pre-application phase, for a marine jetty right next to Fortis’s existing LNG production and storage facility on a brownfield site previously home to the Northwest Hardwood Mill.
The use of LNG as ship fuel is forecast to expand in the coming years, and B.C. is well-positioned to benefit from this growth, the Premier’s office said.
According to the most recent forecasts from global energy consultancy group Wood Mackenzie, global demand for LNG bunkering is skyrocketing. In 2018, the marketplace totalled just 170,000 tonnes of LNG. But global demand is expected to exceed nine million tonnes by 2025 and eclipse 35 million tonnes a year by 2035.
There are environmental benefits as well as economic. Replacing diesel fuel with LNG has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 20 per cent, according to the province. “Because FortisBC’s Tilbury facility runs on clean B.C. electricity, LNG produced there could reduce GHG emissions in marine shipping by up to 26 per cent.”
Furthermore, LNG-fuelled vessels are less likely to spill fuel, compared to those using heavy fuel oil or diesel.
“The increased activity of LNG-powered ships would significantly reduce the GHG emissions produced by the international marine shipping industry, in line with our efforts to lower other transportation emissions under CleanBC,” said Energy Minister Michelle Mungall in a statement. “It also provides an opportunity for us to develop this innovative, emerging industry using B.C.’s lower carbon natural gas.”
The Premier’s office said the facility would also provide a significant boost to the province’s GDP.
Initial findings from a study done by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for FortisBC show that a five-year construction period for LNG bunkering infrastructure could contribute a cumulative $1.8 billion to provincial gross domestic product.
B.C. is putting up $25,000 to help pay for a PwC study of the potential environmental and social impact of the proposal, as well as a competitiveness assessment.
PwC’s preliminary findings suggest that using LNG rather than heavy fuel oil could reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides and sulphur oxides by up to 90 per cent.
The announcement comes just three months after Premier John Horgan’s July trip to the Netherlands, where he visited the world’s largest LNG bunkering facility, in Rotterdam.
“We are confident in B.C.’s ability to join the global network of ports that deliver clean-burning LNG direct to the ships of the future,” Horgan said in the statement. “This will allow B.C. to have a direct impact on global emissions by reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from visiting vessels.
“Working together, we can meet the increasing global demand for energy solutions that reduce air pollution and protect our climate, while creating more jobs and opportunities for everyone in B.C.”
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