(Changes dateline to Vancouver, adds CEO quotes and projectbackground)
By Julie Gordon
VANCOUVER, April 30 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell Plc's proposed LNG Canada liquefied natural gas export plantin British Columbia tiptoed closer to reality on Wednesday, withthe company signing a formalized partnership agreement with itsthree Asian partners, nudging the project into the next stage ofdevelopment.
Shell also boosted its stake in the project to 50 percentfrom 40 percent, while PetroChina retains its 20percent interest. Mitsubishi Corp and Kogas will each take a 15 percent interest, down from their former 20percent share.
With the initial technical work complete, the partners saidthey will now move ahead with the detailed engineering anddesign work, along with an ongoing environmental assessment andconsultation work.
"It's important to note that today is not yet the finalinvestment decision to construct the project," LNG Canada chiefexecutive Andy Calitz told reporters. "We have a number ofuncertainties to overcome and work to do."
The final call on whether the project will go ahead is still18 to 24 months away, he said. Construction would take aboutfive years, with operations expected early next decade.
The project, in the port town of Kitimat some 1,400kilometers (870 miles) north of Vancouver, is just one of abouta dozen export terminals proposed for British Columbia's ruggedPacific coast as energy firms scramble to build facilities tomove cheap Canadian gas to Asian markets.
Petronas' Pacific NorthWest LNG project andChevron Corp's Kitimat LNG project are consideredfront-runners in the race to build Canada's first LNG exportterminal, with the LNG Canada project a close third.
With an initial capacity of some 12 million tonnes of LNGper year, each partner will be responsible for sourcing its ownportion of the gas, in proportion to its ownership stake, andwill then take the same proportional amount of LNG produced.
"For every 100 cargoes that are produced, 15 will go toKogas, 15 will go to Mitsubishi, 20 will go to PetroChina and 50will go to Shell," said Calitz. "As such, for this project, donot expect LNG sales announcements." (Additional writing by Scott Haggett; editing by Gunna Dickson)