Shell, partners file for Canada LNG export license

CALGARY, Alberta, July 27 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell Plc and its partners in a planned Canadian liquefied natural gas project have applied for a license to export up to 24 million tonnes of the fuel over 24 years, the company said on Friday.

The gas would be exported from a liquefaction plant Shell has proposed to build at Kitimat, British Columbia, on the Pacific Coast to take advantage of lucrative Asian markets. It would initially have to LNG processing units with capacity of 6 million tonnes each.

Shell and its partners, PetroChina, Kogas and Mitsubishi Corp, revealed the details of the proposal in May.

They said the plant could be in service around the end of the decade, pending regulatory approvals.

The proposal follows others being considered for Kitimat, which looks set to become a major Pacific Rim export hub for gas produced from the massive Horn River and Montney shale gas formations in British Columbia.