Prince Rupert Gas Transmission requests route change from EAO

VICTORIA, B.C. — It’s been three years now since TransCanada was selected by Progress Energy Canada, to design, build, own and operate about a 900-kilometre natural gas pipeline from this area to Lelu Island off the coast of Port Edward, south of Prince Rupert.

The Prince Rupert Gas Transmission project is now fully permitted having received the approval of the Fort St. John-based BC Oil and Gas Commission, last October, about a year after it was approved by the Provincial Environmental Assessment office.

Now, however, PRGT has submitted an amendment request to the EAO for a proposed route alternative, to address concerns associated with Mount Milligan Mine mineral tenures held by the Thompson Creek Metals Company — while also accommodating concerns of affected aboriginal groups in that region.

The Mount Milligan copper/gold mine is located 155 kilometers northwest of Prince George, midway between Fort St. James and Mackenzie.

The additional route alternative also requires relocation of a future Witter Lake Compressor Station, north of Fort St. James, that was not addressed in the original application for an Environmental Assessment Certificate.

As reported earlier, the pipeline would deliver Montney area natural gas produced by Progress Energy — now majority-owned by Petronas — to the proposed Pacific Northwest LNG export terminal on Lelu Island, also majority-owned by the Malaysian state-owned oil and gas giant.

It’s worth noting the Petronas led consortium behind the $36-billion project says it would start work tomorrow, if the federal government would just let it, with President Michael Culbert quoted by the Vancouver Province as saying, “We’re shovel ready and ready to move ahead.”