Chevron buys 50% stake in Kitimat LNG terminal

Chevron Canada Ltd. is moving to acquire a 50 per cent stake in a proposed liquefied natural gas export terminal near Kitimat, B.C., in a series of deals that will result in the exit of two of the three current partners.

Under the deal, the subsidiary of Chevron Corp. has agreed to buy out the stakes held by Encana Corp. and a subsidiary of EOG Resources Inc., which each hold 30 per cent.

As part of an transaction with Chevron, Apache Corp., which holds the remaining 40 per cent stake, will increase its ownership of the plant and pipeline to 50 per cent.

Financial terms of the agreements were not immediately available.

The proposed Kitimat LNG project is in the front-end engineering and design phase. The current plans call for two liquefaction trains, each with expected capacity of five million tons of liquefied natural gas per year.

In October 2011, the National Energy Board granted Kitimat LNG a 20-year export licence to serve international markets.