Alberta, Canada's energy powerhouse, and neighbor British Columbia are in talks about expanding the reach of locally produced natural gas to Europe and Asia.
Alberta's Premier Danielle Smith and her B.C. counterpart David Ebby started the negotiations two weeks ago, according to Smith, as quoted by CBC. The idea is to benefit from carbon offset credits made available by the Paris Agreement.
"With the right infrastructure in place, Western Canada would become a sought-after supplier for both Asia and Europe,'' the Alberta Premier said.
"Shipping LNG from Canada's West Coast to Asia takes 11 days, compared to 20 days from the U.S. Gulf Coast."
"With the completion of proposed projects in Atlantic Canada, shipping Western Canada's gas to Europe would take seven to eight days, and that would be less than any other North American LNG project," Smith explained.
Canada has been slow to build an LNG industry, not least because of the federal government's opposition to growth in the country's oil and gas sector. Last year, during a visit by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there was no business case for Canadian LNG terminals on the east coast.
Trudeau has also questioned whether any LNG terminals could be built sufficiently cheaply and quickly to help alleviate Europe's energy crunch.
There is only one LNG project underway in Canada, close to completion, per the latest update from the consortium that is building it.
With our project now close to 85% complete overall, we remain on track to shipping our first cargoes of low-carbon, made-in B.C. LNG, by mid-decade," the chief executive of the consortium, LNG Canada, said this week, as quoted by Offshore Energy.
"Our LNG will provide security of supply for global markets that can rely on Canada's natural gas reserves to advance their economies and reduce global GHG emissions."
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
Irina is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing on the oil and gas industry. More
Comments
Of course the two major bottlenecks would be the Welland Canal (around Niagara) and that the Lakes freeze up for several months during the winter, which is when LNG is most in demand in Europe. It is also the most efficient time to process NG into LNG. But then maybe the lakes (especially Eire) don't freeze up anymore during the winter.