Nov 23 (Reuters) - Canadian liquefied natural gas (LNG) developer Woodfibre LNG said on Tuesday it signed to build its proposed LNG export plant in British Columbia with engineering firm McDermott International Inc . Woodfibre said in a release that the engineering, procurement, fabrication and construction contract moved the project a step closer to getting built in a market that has seen some cancellations and delays so far this year despite record gas prices in Europe and Asia. read more Woodfibre is one of about a dozen developers that have said that they plan to go forward with LNG export projects in 2020 and 2021. So far, however, only one project started construction in 2020 - Sempra Energy"s (SRE.N) Costa Azul in Mexico - and no projects have started construction in 2021. Woodfibre has said the project would cost an estimated C$1.6 billion-C$1.8 billion. Woodfibre is a unit of Pacific Energy Corp Ltd. If it starts early construction work in early 2022, as expected, Woodfibre said the plant could enter service in the third quarter of 2027. Woodfibre said it already has two offtake agreements with BP PLC (BP.L), representing about 1.5 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of LNG from the proposed 2.1-MTPA plant. read more One MTPA is equivalent to 0.13 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas. The company estimated that 650 people will be working on the LNG site at peak construction. Global LNG demand has increased every year since 2012 and hit record highs every year since 2015 mostly due to fast-rising demand in Asia. Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Mark Porter