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Propelling Pacific aspirations for fledgling Canadian LNG export industry

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Economy

Enbridge’s Aitken Creek gas storage expansion provides essential flexibility for sector

August 11, 2025

Canada’s fledgling liquefied natural gas (LNG) export industry has finally left the nest.

Enbridge is actively invested in seeing it take flight.

In mid-July, LNG Canada delivered the country’s first major shipment of LNG overseas—from Kitimat, British Columbia to Tongyeong, South Korea—with other tankers following in its wake as the company enters routine service in Q3.

Additional West Coast LNG export facilities under construction, or in development, in the province include the Cedar LNG facility in Kitimat, the Woodfibre LNG facility in Squamish (in which Enbridge holds a 30% ownership stake) and the Ksi Lisims LNG facility in Gingolx.

Accordingly, Enbridge announced during our 2025 second-quarter financial earnings call on Aug. 1 that we’re expanding our Aitken Creek gas storage facility north of Fort St. John.

This C$0.3-billion expansion at Aitken Creek, which already offers the only underground gas storage in the province, will provide an additional 40 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of storage.

This expansion will bring Aitken Creek’s storage total to just under 120 Bcf—not only providing essential flexibility for Western Canada’s LNG export sector, but improving reliability for BC and U.S. Pacific Northwest residents, especially during the winter heating season.

The expansion project is expected to enter service in spring 2028.

“The expansion of our Aitken Creek storage facility will support the growing Canadian LNG market,” noted Enbridge President and CEO Greg Ebel during our Q2 earnings call on Aug. 1.

“This project will also optimize our other expansions underway on the Westcoast system, providing customers with critical flexibility in a rapidly developing region, particularly on the LNG front.”

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We are investing more than C$7 billion in expansion projects along our Westcoast natural gas transmission pipeline system—both to support the growing LNG export sector, and meet growing demand in BC and the U.S. Pacific Northwest. These include:

  • The Aspen Point Program on Westcoast’s T-North segment, adding about 535 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of transportation capacity, by late 2026.
  • The Sunrise Expansion Program on Westcoast’s T-South segment, providing about 300 MMcf/d of additional capacity, by late 2028.
  • The Birch Grove Program, on Westcoast’s T-North segment, aiming to add another 178 MMcf/d of capacity, by late 2028.

Through the Aitken Creek expansion, as with our other major BC projects, we’re expanding and optimizing existing facilities to better serve the region and minimize disturbance to the environment.

Growing Western Canadian LNG exports “make that storage all the more valuable,” said Mr. Ebel. “It’s a good time for storage—on the Gulf Coast, in the Great Lakes regions, and obviously in Western Canada, where Aitken really is the only player in BC as LNG comes on.”