After a journey of more than 9,000 kilometres, the first shipment of liquefied natural gas, a single ISO container of gas, left FortisBC’s Tilbury LNG storage facility in Canada, in mid-November, and arrived in China last week.
The shipment sailed through Burrard Inlet on its journey to its final destination in China on December 14.
True North looked after importing the ISO container, the LNG supply arrangement, managing logistics, export documentation and reporting.
The voyage was made by container ship, bypassing receiving LNG terminals and regasification facilities. This simplified process can reduce the cost and infrastructure constraints of the conventional model of shipping by LNG tanker.
“The main advantage of shipping LNG by ISO containers is high flexibility. Instead of relying on dedicated LNG carriers, exporting and receiving terminals, ISO containers enable us to utilize existing container ports, ships, trucks and rails to transport the LNG,” Calvin Xu, CEO of True North Energy said.
As far as China is concerned, it has been increasing its fight against pollution. The central government aims to increase the natural gas share from about 6% of the energy mix in 2015 to 10% by 2020 and 15% by 2030.
To keep up with the increased demand, in the last six years China has tripled its LNG imports. By 2018, the country is expected to surpass neighbouring South Korea as the world’s second largest LNG importer.
“Shorter transit time means lower transportation costs and quicker turnaround, which make exporting LNG from BC to China more competitive than any other North American location,” Mr. Xu stated.
