"Front End Engineering" begins for BC LNG
Energy
The Hart Energy E&P (exploration and production) newsletter is reporting that an Overland, Kansas based company, Black & Veatch, a multi-billion dollar, employee-owned engineering firm founded in 1915, is beginning front end engineering (FEED) for the second proposed Kitimat liquified natural gas facility, BC LNG.
Although no information appears on the Black & Veatch website, the newsletter quotes Tom Tatham, the managing director of Douglas Channel Gas Services Ltd, the company which will contract with energy firms wanting to export through the BC LNG facility as saying: "We are looking to build the majority of the LNG export facility on a standard Panamax barge to minimize the physical and environmental impact in this scenic area."
(The name Panamax derives from the maximum size that a barge or ship can be to pass through the Panama Canal, which means the LNG from the port of Kitimat could be shipped to anywhere in the world, not just to the projected Asian market)
Black & Veatch has developed a process called PRICO which Tatham says is ideal for this type of application because of its smaller footprint and flexible operations.
Black & Veatch's engineering planning is scheduled to be complete by January 2012 and will provide a "definitive estimate" that will be used for costing engineering, procurement, construction, testing and commissioning of the facility.
The newsletter quotes says Dean Oskvig, president and CEO of Black & Veatch "The global LNG export market is extremely cost-competitive," and Oskvig says the company`s process will be scalable and thus allow the partnership to bring liquified natural gas to market at a competitive price.
The Black & Veatch website briefly promotes the PRICO process as simple, flexible, reliable and economic but gives few details.
The company has an Edmonton based Canadian subsidiary.
