West Pac happy with interest in their recent open house

The recent information session put on by WestPac terminals brought curious Rupertites out to the Civic Centre on Tuesday to learn more about the plans for an LNG terminal proposed for Ridley Island.

With experts and displays, WestPac attempted to answer questions and provide details about the 350 million dollar receiving terminal, which will receive liquid natural gas imported from Indonesia and Australia, should the terminal receive the go ahead.

In a blog entry from yesterday, we highlighted some of the different aspects of the multi million dollar project, including some of the negative reactions in other locations when a project such as this one is brought up for debate.

Thursday’s Daily News had full coverage of the Rupert information session and what the organizers from WestPac hoped to take back with them from the input from the community.

LEVEL OF INTEREST IN PROJECT PLEASES LNG FIRM
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Thursday, October 5, 2006.
Pages One and Two

WestPac had both knowledgeable experts and informative displays on hand at the Civic Centre Tuesday as the company attempted to gauge the public’s perception of its proposed Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) receiving terminal.

“What we want to see is a statement of how the people of Prince Rupert feel about our project. If nobody comes, that’s a statement and if lots of people come, that’s a statement. So I am glad to see people are coming. We are seeing a general level of support. I would hate to see complete disinterest,” said mark Butler, president of WestPac.

The company is proposing to build and operate a $350 million receiving terminal on Ridley Island in order to allow LNG to be imported from Indonesia and Australia to meet the anticipated shortage of natural gas in North American markets.

Butler explained that public feedback is an important part of determining the scope of environmental assessment required for the project.

”One of the things we are currently working through is developing the terms of the environmental assessment we are doing,” he said. “Signals of support from the public as well as signals of opposition are both taken into consideration as we develop the scope of that. The public’s participation, positive or negative, as we are developing the level of assessment, is required.”

Earlier this year, WesPac LNG initiated the environmental assessment process by filing the project description with the Prince Rupert Port Authority.

Now they are at the stage where the federal government and the port are determining the scope of that environmental assessment will be and what factors will need to be looked at.

While the regulators are talking among themselves, WestPac LNG has hired consulting firm Jacques Whitford to study the area of the proposed terminal.

Representatives of Jacques Whitford were on hand at the open house where they presented several technical reports on marine bird surveys and fresh water habitat. Research on the site is ongoing.

The 100 hectare piece of land where the company is proposing to build the terminal and storage tanks is on Ridley Island out past the coal terminal, about 11 kilometers south of Prince Rupert.

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.

The terminal includes the construction of a new marine jetty and berthing facilities that can receive LNG tankers as well as small capacity LNG barges and tugboats. On land, it includes up to four onshore tanks that would allow for re-gasification, a natural gas liquids extraction facility, infrastructure to facilitate the loading of rail cars and trucks with LNG and infrastructure to provide re-gasification of LNG to natural gas and interconnection to the existing natural gas pipeline on Ridley Island.

WestPac is also pleased to see government has begun the process of consultation and accommodation with First Nations.

“Consultation is the obligation of government. One of the things I think frustrates proponents and First Nations alike is when government regardless of the agency it is assigned to, doesn’t do its job,” said Butler.

“In this project, I am happy to say I think government has started to do its job and the processes have been initiated. We are not a long ways down the road and we continue to work with government and First Nations as we define the process but the process has commenced. To me, a proponent, that’s important. Now we need to work towards a good outcome for Fist Nations and government and quite frankly for the project.”