Canada’s first liquefied natural gas export facility, LNG Canada, will double its capacity in the early 2030s after the Shell-led project announced on Tuesday the final investment decision to proceed with Phase 2 of the plant in Kitimat, British Columbia.
LNG Canada in Kitimat, B.C., launched exports in the summer of 2025, after years of development by its shareholders Shell, Petronas, PetroChina, Mitsubishi, and Korea Gas Corporation (Kogas).
Phase 2 of the first Canadian LNG export facility is planned to add two LNG processing units, or trains, increasing LNG Canada’s total production capacity from 14 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to 28 mtpa.
Shell, the world’s biggest LNG trader, holds a 40% interest in LNG Canada and will receive nearly 6 mtpa of additional LNG from the expansion.
The partners in the project have agreed that LNG Canada will continue to operate under an equity lifting structure, whereby each joint venture participant is responsible for the offtake of its proportionate share of LNG production and for bringing its share of gas supply.
Commercial operations of LNG Canada Phase 2 are expected to begin in the early 2030s.
The project in Kitimat is positioned to supply cost-competitive gas to Asian markets, where demand for LNG is expected to increase significantly, Shell said.
According to Shell’s LNG Outlook 2026, global LNG demand is expected to rise by around 65% by 2050, driven by growing energy demand and the need for secure, flexible, and reliable energy supplies.
“LNG Canada is a core part of our Integrated Gas portfolio, helping to supply LNG to customers in Asia at a time when diversity of energy supplies and energy security are increasingly important,” Shell’s Integrated Gas President, Cederic Cremers, said on Tuesday.
LNG Canada Phase 2 is actually the first on the list of five major projects of national importance, which Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney proposed in the autumn of 2025 to diversify Canada’s energy exports from the United States and make it an energy superpower.
By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com
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