Vopak updates its project notes for Ridley Terminal plans

New documents posted to the Port of Prince Rupert website provide a wider glimpse of the planned export terminal for Ridley Island that has been proposed by the Dutch global shipping giant Vopak.

The international materials shipper was already involved with the ongoing work at the AltaGas Terminal at Ridley Island holding a 30 percent stake in that project and as that work began, Vopak decided that they would like to have a much larger footprint on the North Coast, announcing their intention to develop their own terminal facility at the industrial site.

It is a project which will provide for marine shipping services and employment on the North Coast for at least the next fifty years at terminal facilities on Ridley Island,  a timeline that may be  even longer depending on when the project has reached the end of its operational life.

The Dutch Global shipping giant Vopak is moving forward
with its plans for a bulk fuels terminal facility on Ridley Island

In late July Vopak completed the full scope of their Project Description, the document which is now available for review from the Port offers up a wide overview of the project and how it fits into the long term land use management plan of the Port.

Among the notes in the Introduction to the project is the description of the range of products that could be shipped through the Terminal facility upon its completion.

The project will store Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) (propane), Clean Petroleum Products (diesel and or gasoline) and methanol on behalf of Vopak's customers.  Vopak will build the project and manage the day to day operations of the bulk liquids storage facility. 

All products will be transported from various locations across Western Canada to the project via the existing Canadian National Railway line. Customers of Vopak will be scheduling the transportation of the products to site and will ship the products from the jetty to international markets.

So far Vopak has engaged in consultation with the First Nations of the North Coast, local governments and other community stakeholders, as well as environmental agencies with the Federal and provincial governments.

The scope of the project will see a terminal facility with capacity for the operation of six rail tracks within the PRPR Road Railway Utility Corridor and up to 50 rail car unloading racks. Six pressurized LPG bullets, one full containment LPG storage tank and 12 carbon steel storage tanks of varying volumes.

The shipment facility will also feature a 200 metre long causeway and 800 metre long trestle with two berths for for vessels to take product to international markets.

A storage tank farm, causeway and 800 metre shipping jetty
which can host two ships at a time is part of the
blueprint for development on Ridley Island

Projected employment figures for the project, suggest a significant boost to requirements during the construction phase with the anticipation of a work force to number 300 or so during the two year construction period. Vopak states that they believe they can recruit up to 60 percent of that workforce form local sources.

Many of the out of town workers will be housed at the existing work camp in place in Port Edward and transported to and from the site by bus, though they don't anticipate making full use of the camp facilities owing to their desire to hire locally.

Upon completion the Operations of the Vopak terminal will provide employment for between 40 to 50 people, with the company expecting to be able to tap the local employment market for 70 per cent of those positions.

Project Costs for the terminal are broken down into three segments:

Development and Construction Costs: 750-850 million dollars
Decommissioning Costs: 5 to 10 million
Annual Operating Costs: 40 to 50 million

The Project Schedule is outlined as follows:

Environmental assessment and engineering design 2018-2019
Permitting and Environmental management plans end of 2019
Construction activities 2020 to 2022
Operational In Service Date 2022
Operations and Maintenance 2002 out to a minimum of 50 years (2072)
Decommissioning, abandonment and reclamation sometime after 2017 when the Project has reached the end of its operation life.

The Dutch company notes that the Federal government has not provided any financial support for the project and Vopak does not have any plans to apply for Federal funding.

The project is noted as still in the conceptual stage, with the design of the development to be further defined over the course of the environmental effects evaluation, though the company also observes that no major changes or gaps related to the design are anticipated.

The range of elements of the proposed development found in the forty five page report can be explored in more detail here.

As the timeline observes, the next year or so will be turned over to environmental review work and further consultation, Vopak has also provided a copy of their terms of reference for the Draft Environmental Review, which forms their initial approach to the process now underway through the BC Environmental Assessment Office.

The details of the overview from the EAO can be found here, with the comment period set to start tomorrow September 6th, with the end date for the comments in this phase noted as October 9th.

Two Open Houses are planned for this month related to the Vopak plans:

Tuesday, September 25 at the Port Edward Community Centre from 4 to 7 PM

Wednesday, September 26 at the North Coast Convention Centre in Prince Rupert from 5 to 8PM

Among some of the themes to be explored from the Environmental Assessment are: Air Quality and GHG emissions, Noise, impact on neighbouring properties, marine and fish habitats and other marine issues and Mitigation measures

You can review the Terms of Refernce document here.

For more items of interest related to the Vopak development see our archive page here.


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