Re: Clark strikes a blow against “forces of No”
There is note of political desperation in Premier Christy Clark’s criticism of those who question the direction taken by the province’s quest to export LNG and create thousands of jobs she may have missed the boat.
The province’s land-based LNG plants could well be facing competition from some of the world’s floating LNG facilities being built in South Korea and backed by Royal Dutch Shell – Ship length 488 meters (1,600ft), with width 74 meters (243ft) and when storage tanks are fully loaded weigh more than 600,000 tons.
The packed onboard LNG facility takes up on ¼ the area of an equivalent land based facility can withstand a category 5 cyclone and be built quickly.
Economies of scale of flouting facilities are close to land based facilities and cheapen the cost of producing LNG.
Escalating costs of building land facilities, resistance from host communities, genuine environmental concerns and noise problems has caused Shell to build floating facilities that are a technical game changer with new technology.
After a land based facility has been built and found to impact on the local environment it cannot be moved, a floating facility can be relocated.
Once the life of an LNG installation has ended the dismantling of the plant and resultant site remediation can be costly, not including the provincial construction tax breaks given in the first place.
With the low Canadian dollar, B.C. should step back and rethink how the province is to export LNG and not offer forty year gas extraction leases.
A. R Shaw
Campbell River
