Steelhead LNG Corp., which is planning an export project on Vancouver Island, has hired Ernest Buchan as projects director effective immediately.
Buchan is an oil and gas executive with more than 30 years of international experience working on major oil, gas and LNG projects for companies such as Chevron Corporation and Royal Dutch Shell plc.
In this role, reporting to Ian Hill, Steelhead LNG’s vice-president, technical, Buchan will build and lead an experienced project team that will work with industry partners and contractors to help them evaluate and develop LNG project opportunities through pre-FEED, FEED and engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) phases. Buchan will also work with regulatory agencies in British Columbia to secure the permits required for individual projects and support Steelhead LNG at the corporate level in developing its business and project management systems.
Buchan’s engineering, construction and project management experience in the LNG sector includes all aspects and phases of field development, from exploration opportunity framing through to commissioning and operations support, in offshore, onshore and integrated upstream/downstream developments.
He has worked in various development and project leadership positions in the Netherlands, Sakhalin and Oman, and most recently was technical manager and offplot integration manager for Chevron’s Gorgon LNG project in Western Australia, a 15 million tonne per annum (mtpa), three-train plant.
Other past positions include integrated commissioning team manager for Sakhalin Energy’s Sakhalin II integrated oil and gas project in Russia (a 10-mtpa, two-train LNG plant) and technical manager for Shell Development Australia’s FLNG concept development for the Sunrise field in the Timor Sea (five-mtpa FLNG train).
