More Jobs for Podunk!

Tuesday morning brought some more good news for the hard pressed economy of Podunk, though we'll have to wait a bit before we reap the benefits from a press release from WestPac energy of Calgary.

If we don't go kaboom, by 2011 there will be thirty more permanent jobs available in Prince Rupert, West Pac LNG has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Port of Prince Rupert for a thirty year lease on land at Ridley Island for a 350 Million dollar liquefied Natural Gas receipt and transshipment terminal.

The project will feature two to four on shore storage tanks, a new marine berth and piping for moving the product from ship to shore. It will also have a re-gasification facility and infra-structure for re-shipment by barge, rail or truck

In the construction phase it will provide over 300 jobs and upon completion in 2011 will provide for 30 permanent full time jobs on site.

Full details can be found in the news release the link can be found here.

Update: The Daily News had a complete story on the project in it's Tuesday afternoon edition, the details of which are reprinted below.

HUGE $350 MILLION PROJECT BONANZA FOR RUPERT
(Hundreds of construction jobs and 30 long term positions
expected as city reaps benefit)
By James Vassallo
The Daily News
Tuesday June 6, 2006
Pages One and Three

WestPac LNG has taken the first steps toward a $350 million dollar Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facility at Ridley Island.

“This morning, we (filed) the project description with the Port of Prince Rupert which will commence the environmental assessment process under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act in support of a Liquefied Natural Gas transshipment and receipt terminal,” said Mark Butler, president of the Calgary-based company. “We are looking to be invited in your community. We want to build buildings here, we want to employ some of your citizens, we want to understand what’s important to your community.”

The environmental permit process is expected to take 12-14 months. If approved, it will be followed by a year long engineering and design process. Construction will then take another three years with operations expected to commence in 2011.

“We’re going to teach you, we’re going to talk about LNG and show you this is a safe industry,” he said. “We’re going to show you that we can be good neighbours.”

During the process, there will be consultations with First Nations, municipal and regional stakeholders and the public, as well as a number of studies commissioned on potential impacts/.If approved, the construction phase will employ more than 300 people, while 30 people will be employed at the facility once it is running.

“What you’ll see are very big ships coming in – about the dimension of a cruise ship – but they’ll only get bigger, and they will berth at Ridley Island and they will pump off Liquefied Natural Gas into .. two quite large tanks,” said Butler, adding that these ‘super ships’ would arrive around once a month. “Those tanks will be roughly the same height as the existing grain terminal.”

While in its liquefied form, that gas will be available locally for energy purposes as it is regasified as well as for shipment – by truck, rail and boat – to everything from mines to communities without stable sources of energy like Masset.

“To be successful you have to be in the right place at the right time,” said Don Krusel, Prince Rupert Port Authority president”.”(WestPac) has developed a business plan that shows they’re at the right time and anybody who knows anything about location knows that this is the right location.

“This particular project plays in Prince Rupert’s strengths .. the fact that we are one of the deepest and safest harbours in the world is a clear advantage for this project. The fact that the port is the closest to the international sources for natural gas is clearly important and strategic for this project.”

Krusel said that the project also provides a number of spin-off opportunities, including a cogeneration plant that could bring large amounts of electricity to the region. “We’re talking about something much more than just another shipping facility in Prince Rupert. We’re talking about something that could possibly be the catalyst of other industries, other developments in Prince Rupert,” Krusel said. “With the reliable and abundant supply of natural gas and possibly the reliable and abundant supply of electricity, we can attract a whole lot more other diversified industries.”

WestPac has retained Jacques Whitford – a national consulting firm that has successfully completed several LNG-related environmental assessments on both coasts of Canada and it Qatar, in the Middle East – to perform the assessment.

WestPac earlier entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Port of Prince Rupert for a 30 year lease, with a provision for three 10 year extensions, with the Port for 100 hectares on Ridley Island adjacent to existing grain and coal shipping terminals. The project will include a new marine berthing facility with transfer piping to onshore LNG storage tanks; two to four onshore LNG storage tanks, with a total capacity to transship the natural gas equivalent of up to one billion cubic feet per day; a natural gas liquids extraction facility, with storage; infrastructure for barge, rail car and truck. LNG and natural gas liquids loading; and LNG re-gasification facilities with a capacity of up to 130 million cubic feet per day of natural gas and related infrastructure for interconnection to existing pipelines at the project site.

Liquefied natural gas is created by cooling natural gas into a liquid state at a temperature of minus 162C. This reduces the space natural gas occupies by 600 times making it practical for transport and storage.