From the gas fields to the global market
How extraordinary engineering and growing demand for LNG helped put a remote corner of Canada on the global energy map.
On July 1, 2025
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Tucked into the rugged west coast of British Columbia in Canada, amid the rivers, mountains and eagles soaring overhead, is one of the world’s most advanced energy facilities – and one of its remotest.
LNG Canada stands on territory belonging to the Haisla Nation, who have stewarded this land for generations. Every step of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Kitimat over the last six years “had to be planned to respect the land, the people, and the scale of what we were building,” says Hadi Quazi, Shell’s Joint Venture Asset Manager for LNG Canada.
That scale is hard to overstate. Canada’s largest private-sector investment includes a town to house its thousands of workers and a marine yard – a clue to the site’s importance to the global energy system.
The first cargoes from LNG Canada have left Kitimat for customers in Asia. And it’s just the start. The facility has the capacity to produce around 14 million tonnes of LNG every year, liquefying natural gas that arrives at the site through a 670-kilometre (416 mile) pipeline.
For Shell, the launch marks a key step in expanding its global LNG portfolio – already one of the largest in the world. But its impact stretches further. LNG is a critical fuel for the energy transition because it offers a lower-carbon alternative to coal, especially for heavy industry, and can be easily transported to where it is needed. It also provides grid stability alongside wind and solar power. As global demand for LNG grows – in Asia in particular – LNG Canada is helping supply the energy that millions around the world increasingly rely on.
Heavy lift
Kitimat’s remoteness made the LNG Canada project especially challenging. The nearest major city, Prince George, is about 600 km (372 miles) away – about the same distance from London to Paris and back again. With no local infrastructure to build the components, all the equipment – from steel piles to turbines – was transported from overseas, including from China and Italy.
“LNG Canada was assembled like a colossal Lego set,” Hadi says. “But instead of snapping together plastic bricks, crews hoisted and positioned building-sized modules.”
One of the most complex lifts involved placing a 1,540-tonne steel roof onto the LNG storage tank – a single piece heavier than a fully loaded Airbus A380.
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Power, cooling, and efficiency
Behind the massive structures lies a finely tuned system of technology and energy.
“Think of LNG Canada as a giant refrigerator,” Hadi explains. “Our job is to cool natural gas from ambient temperatures down to -162°C so it can be shipped as a liquid. That cooling process demands tremendous amounts of energy.”
Four powerful gas turbines – derived from aircraft engines and used in an LNG plant for the first time – power the liquefaction process. They are among the most efficient gas turbines in the world and, together, could power a city the size of Vancouver. But generating that much energy also produces intense heat, much like the back of a refrigerator gets warm when the air inside is cold. Some of this heat is reused to warm parts of the plant, but the rest has to be released.
This is where the largest cooling towers Shell has ever used come in. Acting like the refrigerator’s heat vent, they remove excess heat using water that is continuously cooled and reused in a loop, with only a small amount taken from the nearby Kitimat River to replace what is lost to evaporation.
“We recycle as much water as we can,” says Rena Feng, a process engineer and a Shell secondee at LNG Canada. “It’s about keeping the plant efficient and minimising waste.”
Jenna Lapointe, Shell petrophysicist"There is something extraordinary about seeing the first boat come into the harbour. We have been on this journey for years – from reservoir to the pipe, from pipe to the plant – and now we are sending the LNG to the world."
Unlocking gas reservoirs
The idea of liquefying natural gas and exporting it from British Columbia had been around for decades. But in 2018, a final investment decision was signed by Shell, Malaysia’s PETRONAS, PetroChina, Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan and Korea’s KOGAS. Shell is the largest partner in the LNG Canada joint venture with a 40% interest.
Long before pipelines were laid or ships prepared for export, Shell’s geoscientists and engineers were poring over geological data, searching for the right rocks. In the foothills of British Columbia, they found them – layers of tight, gas-rich siltstone and shale known as the Montney formation.
“I always start at the rocks,” says Jenna Lapointe, a petrophysicist who has worked for Shell for more than three decades. “I love the puzzle of trying to understand what makes the best quality reservoir.”
Getting the gas to Kitimat was a feat of engineering in itself. The Coastal GasLink pipeline, owned and operated by TC Energy, traverses mountains, forests, and rivers. When the terrain got too steep for trucks or cranes, the Coastal Gaslink team created a solution.
“They built ski lifts to haul pipes up the side of a mountain,” says Hadi. “Not for people – for steel.”
First cargoes
As LNG tankers begin to dock in Kitimat, the project turns toward decades of operation.
“There is something extraordinary about seeing the first boat come into the harbour,” says Jenna. “We have been on this journey for years – from reservoir to the pipe, from pipe to the plant – and now we are sending the LNG to the world.”
“Like the Canadian Pacific Railway, which stretches from coast to coast, LNG Canada connects the country in a new way – from the gas fields to the global market,” says Hadi. “It creates a legacy for workers, local and First Nations communities, and Canada.”
In 2024, 78.2% of Shell's global investments included oil & gas, 11.37% included low-carbon energy solutions and 10.43% non-energy products. Shell's target is to become a net-zero emissions (NZE) business by 2050. Disclaimers, including NZE target: shell.com/disclaimer
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