Americas News
BC Ferries Agrees LNG Supply Deal with FortisBC
Fortis Inc. subsidiary FortisBC Monday announced it will supply Canadian West Coast ferry operator BC Ferries with 300,000 gigaJoules of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) per year for the next 10 years.
The supplies are said to be equivalent, in terms of energy, to 7.8 million litres of diesel annually.
The LNG will be supplied from FortisBC's Tilbury facility, south of Vancouver, BC, and from its expanding Mt. Hayes location on Vancouver Island.
BC Ferries' LNG-powered vessels will take delivery of LNG via truck-to-ship transfer when not in operation, as they currently do with diesel.
"We are pleased to collaborate with FortisBC, a safety leader in gas supply, for our new LNG vessels," said Mark Wilson, BC Ferries' Vice President of Engineering.
"The use of LNG has both financial and environmental benefits and this contract will ensure we have a long-term, secure supply to power the new intermediate class vessels."
Fortis BC also said it had provided $6 million in incentive funding towards the building of three new dual-fuel BC Ferries vessels to replace the Queen of Nanaimo and Queen of Burnaby.
Last month, BC Ferries announced the start of construction of the new vessels in Gdansk, Poland, saying delivery of the first new ship is expected in 2016.
