Terasen Gas has applied to the B.C. Utilities Commission to build a 1.5-billion-cubic-foot storage facility on Vancouver Island.
If approved, the structure, located at Mount Hayes, eight kilometres north of Ladysmith, could store enough liquefied natural gas to meet growing needs on the island and in the Lower Mainland.
The project will cost an estimated $175 million to $200 million and would improve efficiency of Terasen's existing pipelines and reliability of supply.
Terasen said the increased storage capacity could protect the company from price spikes during the winter by storing natural gas bought in the summer, when demand and prices are lower.
The company currently relies on storage facilities located elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest.
Terasen has been developing the Vancouver Island project since 2004 and has doubled the size of the project since its original inception.