Delivery to Europe: Canada’s gas is enough for just one export plant

delivery in europe
Canada’s gas is enough for just one export facility

07/01/2022, 00:19

Canada is a popular choice when looking for an alternative to Russian gas. Environment Secretary Guillebault said the east coast had natural gas reserves for just one LNG plant that could supply liquefied natural gas to Europe. Expanding them accordingly for export is a project “for years”.

In the struggle for an alternative to Russian natural gas, Canadian Environment Minister Steven Guilbolt has specified options for exporting liquefied gas to Germany, among other places. Canada’s east coast has so much gas that it can currently only supply one LNG export facility, Guillebault said.

Most of Canada’s gas production is located in the western provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. The construction of new gas pipelines is not very realistic, the minister explained. The fastest way to export gas to Europe would be through a facility owned by Spanish company Repsol in the eastern Canadian province of New Brunswick. Canada does not yet have a suitable LNG plant for export purposes, only one under construction that is on the west coast.

Guilbolt said the Repsol plant for gas imports could be expanded in the short term so that exports would also be possible. This could strengthen supply in the medium term. “So this is a project that can be implemented fairly quickly, but we are still talking about years.” When asked, Repsol said the company will examine all possibilities of expanding business with the plant. It included supplements for gas liquefaction.

Gilbault stressed that the expansion would have to take into account Canada’s laws on reducing greenhouse gases. Canada has pledged support to Europe. At the same time, the government also wants to achieve its net-zero emissions target by 2050. Approving new plants for processing fossil fuels would be the opposite.

Apart from Repsol for LNG exports, Canadian company Pieridae Energy is also in the news. The group wants to build an LNG plant in Nova Scotia. The Canadian government says it has recently spoken to European allies, including Spain and Germany, about boosting exports from Canada’s east coast. Gilbault explained that Germany’s representatives had insisted in the relevant talks that the new LNG plant should be converted to a hydrogen plant before 2050.