Cedar LNG has issued a notice to proceed with the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) of floating LNG production unit to Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) and Black & Veatch, following the signing of a 20-year offtake agreement with ARC Resources.
According to Cedar LNG and its partners Haisla Nation and Pembina Pipeline, these critical milestones allow the project to proceed to secure financing, which is required prior to making a final investment decision (FID), expected by the middle of 2024.
More specifically, a 20-year take-or-pay liquefaction tolling services agreement with a fixed toll has been signed with ARC Resources Ltd for 1.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa). In addition, Pembina has executed an identical bridging agreement with Cedar LNG for 1.5 mpta. Pembina intends to assign its capacity to a third-party following a positive FID, with commercial offtake discussions continuing with multiple other customers.
To remind, the FID for the proposed floating LNG facility project in Canada's British Columbia has been postponed from the first quarter 2024 to mid-year.
In order to maintain schedule, a notice to proceed has been issued to the EPC contractors to continue the engineering, procurement and construction for the design, fabrication and delivery of the project’s floating LNG production unit.
To remind, the consortium involving SHI and Black & Veatch secured an EPC contract for the Cedar FLNG, with SHI's portion of the contract worth $1.5 billion in January 2024.
"The Cedar LNG project will play a critical role in bringing low-cost, low-emissions Canadian natural gas to the world, while delivering economic benefits to communities and Canadians here at home.
"We are proud to partner with Cedar LNG, the Haisla Nation and Pembina Pipeline who share our commitment to responsible energy development,” said Terry Anderson, President and Chief Executive Officer of ARC Resources.
So far, Cedar LNG has completed a detailed Class III level capital cost estimate of approximately $3.4 billion (gross), including $2.3 billion (gross), or approximately 70%, for the FLNG production unit, which is under a fixed-price, lump-sum agreement, and $1.1 billion (gross) related to onshore infrastructure, owner’s costs, commissioning and start-up costs, financial assurances during construction, and other costs.
The total project cost, including $0.6 billion (gross) of interest during construction and transaction costs, is expected to be approximately $4.0 billion (gross).
The anticipated in-service date for the project is scheduled for late 2028.
Located in Kitimat, within the traditional territory of the Haisla Nation, the project is strategically positioned to leverage Canada’s abundant natural gas supply and British Columbia’s growing LNG infrastructure to produce low-carbon LNG for overseas markets.
Natural gas will be delivered to Cedar LNG through an approximately 8-kilometer-long pipeline that connects to the Coastal GasLink pipeline.
The natural gas will then be converted to LNG, before being loaded onto an LNG carrier, about once every 7 to 10 days or up to 50 times a year. Each LNG carrier will travel through Douglas Channel to Hecate Straight, using the existing deep-water shipping lane, on its way to customers in the Asia Pacific.