Since taking office in March Carney dismantled many green policies introduced by his predecessor, Justin Trudeau. He scrapped an unpopular consumer carbon tax, paused a 2035 electric-vehicle mandate and enacted a law giving his cabinet authority to override environmental rules for infrastructure projects like oil pipelines.
Now, he is fast-tracking approval of the expansion of a liquefied natural-gas export facility in Kitimat, British Columbia. The expanded plant, run by a Shell-led consortium, would become the world’s second-largest LNG exporter, shipping up to 28 million tons a year of the fossil fuel to Asia. Climate activists are dismayed, but the Canadian leader is undeterred. “This will directly help transform our country into an energy superpower,” Carney said.
Well there is a long way to go for the LNG exporting. There is no LNF facility and there is no pipeline from Alberta to proposed LNG facility. Maybe Carney is playing the LNG interests knowing that this is a Pipedream.
Ottawa’s newly bullish tone on liquefied natural gas projects won’t spark a “revolution” in Canadian LNG development, but analysts and project executives say it has improved the outlook for two major proposals.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s push to make Canada a major LNG exporter is raising expectations that at least the two projects on the federal government’s major project’s list — Shell PLC-led LNG Canada Phase 2 and Ksi Lisims LNG — could move closer to final investment decisions.
“Given the fact that they are so advanced — LNG Canada Phase 2 because you’ve already done a lot of the pre-work and you already have an environmental permit for both phases — largely, yeah, I would say that they probably look pretty good.”
Pierce added that she has seen anecdotal evidence that Ottawa’s rhetorical shift is registering with international LNG investors and companies.
Still, the shift is unlikely to unleash a wave of new investment in Canadian LNG after years of stalled development and ballooning project costs, said Alex Munton, head of global gas analysis for Rapid Energy Group.
“We’re not talking about a revolution happening in Canadian LNG; we’re really looking at the likelihood of two more big projects,” Munton said.
“You just simply will not see the emergence of multiple new projects in Canada because the experience has been somewhat painful, and I don’t think that a new government, a new policy, can really alter that.”
I’m surprised that they’re going for a west coast facility. There has been an effort for a number of years to get connections set up on the Atlantic coast. Maybe the Asia market has more potential.
IIRC, Canada already has nat gas pipelines from Alberta east to Montreal. It would seem to make sense to build an LNG facility on the St. Lawarence rather than do a pipeline across the mountains and build one on the west coast. A larger Asian market? Political considerations?
IIRC they proposed a pipeline across Quebec which ran into fierce opposition and was ultimately abandoned. I’d guess that was a major consideration. Don’t remember the name or time, just that Quebec was wildly opposed.
I know that Skagway was “a thing” because it was a port, and they built a railway to get from Yukon to Skagway. I’m assuming you’d want to ship other things from the interior to someplace like Skagway to export it. Probably a shorter route for many of the Canadian provinces. Skagway is now part of the US (it wasn’t when the Yukon rail was built), but that probably can be worked out.
Vancouver is also a port, and you could route resources (e.g. LNG) there, too.
From Alberta, pipeline to BC for export is short compared to pipeline to Quebec. So BC is a better investment if Quebec hesitates to pay profitable prices.
Well, it is only 600 miles to the west coast and some 1800 miles to the east coast. In addition to going east has you traversing quite a few lakes, ponds, rivers etc (in addition to mountains). As opposed to clearing some mountains. And you only have to deal with one other province (BC) vs having to deal with Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec.
