First tug under Haisla-Seaspan JV arrives in time for LNG2023

VANCOUVER, July 10 - The first of five state-of-the-art tugboats that will support the Shell-led LNG Canada liquefaction terminal on BC’s northern coast has arrived in Vancouver, just in time to be shown off July 10 on the first day of the LNG2023 conference.

The first of the vessels, the all-electric HaiSea Wamis, arrived from the Sanmar Shipyard in Turkey just days before the conference. All five – three all-electric harbour tugs and two dual fueled (diesel and LNG) escort tugs – are being built by HaiSea Marine, a joint venture of Haisla Nation, on whose traditional territory the LNG Canada facility is being built, and marine services company SeaSpan.

But the tugboats mean more to the Haisla than just another economic outcome of the C$40bn LNG Canada project. The presence of the tugs, all of which were named after a naming contest throughout the Haisla, Gitxaala and Gitga’a communities, will help create positive change in those communities, said Crystal Smith, chief councillor of the Haisla Nation.

“In regards to the meaning of the tugs, they've definitely taken that whole aspect of environmental impacts and (reduced) it in a very meaningful way in regards to having one of the first electric tugs being operated in the entire world in the Douglas Channel, where our nation’s territory is,” Smith said.