LNG Canada's flare stack burns at its liquid natural gas export facility in Kitimat, B.C., last August.Jesse Winter/Reuters
As Canada’s first export terminal for shipping liquefied natural gas completes its first year of operations and the country sets the stage for LNG expansion, industry and environmentalists are sparring over airborne pollutants.
Shell PLC-led LNG Canada became this country’s first export terminal for the fuel when it started shipping it from Kitimat, B.C., to Asia in mid-2025. Under LNG Canada’s Phase 2 expansion plan, which is currently with the Major Projects Office as an initiative to be fast-tracked, the Kitimat terminal’s export capacity could double.
Demand for LNG is expected to grow and shipping from B.C. to Asia is seen as a good alternative to avoid the choke point in the Strait of Hormuz, which used to be the main transit route for about one-fifth of the world’s LNG supplies before the war in Iran.
The BC Energy Regulator, or BCER, said it would ramp up air quality monitoring with a specially equipped van as LNG Canada seeks to reduce flaring at its West Coast export terminal. The announcement comes shortly after critics raised concerns.
The Roaming Air Monitor (RAM) vehicle is supplementing data provided by at least six stationary locations measuring airborne pollutants in the Kitimat area in northwest B.C.
“The RAM will continue its work in Kitimat through the summer and the data it gathers will be published in a future report,” the BCER said in a statement. Flaring involves the controlled burning of excess natural gas to relieve pressure and is usually done during startups, shutdowns and for maintenance.
The BCER issued its statement after a joint news release last week by critics who expressed concern about pollution and the design of the flare-tip system for burning off excess natural gas, with visible flames, at the Kitimat industrial site.
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The regulator said in a June 25 statement that it’s taking action.
“The BCER has required LNG Canada to provide a suitable plan to address the flare-tip integrity concern and reduce flaring rates,” it said.
The regulator has deployed the van in Kitimat in the past to monitor air quality.
LNG Canada spokesperson Paul Hagel said the project is in the early stages of operations.
“Higher levels of flaring are expected as systems are safely stabilized,” he said in an e-mail last week.
In a community notice to them, LNG Canada said unscheduled flaring occurred on Friday from the combustion of natural gas. The notice was the latest in a series of messages for planned and unplanned flaring over the past year.
As LNG Canada strives to address the problems with excessive flaring, the BCER said it would take escalating enforcement action if necessary.
Critics from groups such as My Sea to Sky, Stand.earth, the David Suzuki Foundation and the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment say climate and health effects are being ignored in Kitimat, and the overall focus needs to be on renewable energy instead of fossil fuels.
But Prime Minister Mark Carney, as part of his quest to decrease economic dependence on the United States, announced last year that LNG Canada’s Phase 2 expansion plan made the list of major projects of national interest to be considered for fast-tracking.
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The Nisga’a Nation-backed Ksi Lisims LNG proposal in northwest B.C. also made Ottawa’s fast-tracking list.
A decade ago, there were more than 20 competing plans to ship LNG from B.C. to energy-thirsty Asia. So far, the Shell-led project in Kitimat is the only LNG export terminal up and running in this country.
A report titled Unlocking an Energy Superpower: How to Harness Canada’s LNG and Natural Gas Advantage, by Arash Golshan and Tim Harper, was released by the Ottawa-based think tank Public Policy Forum on Tuesday. It said Canada needs to aggressively tap into its reserves of natural gas for LNG exports.
“Our report argues that governments can significantly reduce project risk by creating more predictable regulatory processes, co-ordinating approvals across jurisdictions,” Jay Khosla, the think tank’s executive vice-president of policy and strategy, said in a news release accompanying the report.
Separately, London-based Shell forecast that global demand for LNG could surge to almost 700 million tonnes a year by 2050, or a 65-per-cent increase compared with levels last year.
Under LNG Canada’s Phase 2 expansion plan, the Kitimat terminal’s export capacity could play an important role.
It takes roughly 10 days for a ship to sail from Kitimat to North Asia, compared with 20 days from the U.S. Gulf Coast, via the Panama Canal.
“While more investment in both supply and demand infrastructure is needed, the long-term outlook remains strong and LNG will continue to be a stabilizing force in the global energy system,” Cederic Cremers, Shell’s president of integrated gas, said in a statement Tuesday.
Shell estimates that nearly 180 million tonnes of annual new LNG supply could be added to the global market by 2030.