Western LNG, a Houston-based company, with the Nisga’a Nation and Rockies LNG, is developing its first floating LNG production facility on the upper coast of British Columbia, Canada.
Ksi Lisims LNG (pronounced s’lisims), meaning “from the Nass River” in the Nisga’a language, is a proposed 12-million-tonne-per-year LNG project at Wil Milit on the northern tip of Pearse Island near the Nisga’a village of Gingolx.
The project is currently in the Environmental Assessment process with the B.C. government.
The proposed project site is owned by the Nisga’a Nation in fee simple and is located within Nisga’a treaty lands on the northern tip of Pearse Island on the Portland Canal, west of Gingolx, B.C.
Ksi Lisims LNG will be designed to produce up to 12 million tonnes of LNG per year and will receive approximately 1.7 to 2.0 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. Commercial operations are anticipated to commence in late 2028 or 2029.
In March 2024, Western LNG and the Nisga'a Nation announced a binding agreement with TC Energy to purchase the permitted PRGT pipeline project, which would carry natural gas from the Western Sedimentary Basin in northeast British Columbia to the project site on the coast.
Ksi Lisims LNG will have one of the lowest unit carbon emissions rates of any large-scale LNG export project in the world. Ksi Lisims LNG has the potential to provide global energy markets with lower carbon, reliable LNG that will help meet growing energy needs and may reduce the need for base-load coal plant construction while supporting ongoing growth in intermittent renewable power sources such as wind and solar.
Today coal and oil supply more than 70% of the primary energy demand in Asia. If coal and oil were to be replaced with LNG exported from Ksi Lisims LNG, the result could be a reduction of global carbon emissions of more than 45 million tonnes per year, or 1.3 gigatonnes over a 30-year period, which is equivalent to nearly two years of total carbon emissions from Canada.
Ksi Lisims LNG’s pathway to net zero carbon emissions includes the use of renewable BC Hydro power in combination with strong monitoring and measurement, energy efficiency, purchase of carbon offsets and potential carbon capture and storage. Ksi Lisims LNG is being designed to lower the facility's carbon emissions, which would also reduce the amount of offsets required to achieve net zero.
Ksi Lisims LNG has the potential to generate significant social and economic benefits, including public revenues, jobs, training, and business opportunities for First Nations and other communities in British Columbia and Alberta.
In 2000, the Nisga’a Nation entered the first modern treaty in British Columbia. Under the Nisga’a Final Agreement, the Nation has treaty rights to more than 26,000 square kilometres, including the proposed site at Wil Milit.
Ksi Lisims LNG is the culmination of the Nisga’a Nation’s efforts since 2014 to locate a major LNG export facility on Nisga’a treaty lands. Ksi Lisims LNG aligns with the Nisga’a Nation’s vision for self determination and is enabled by the Nisga’a Final Agreement and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The project’s governance structure provides each proponent with meaningful input into project development, management and operations, ensuring it is designed and operated in a manner consistent with the Nisga’a Nation’s commitment to the stewardship of the land and its people.