What the BC-Germany LNG deal means for Canada’s East Coast

British Columbia is selling liquified natural gas to Germany, raising questions about similar opportunities in the Maritimes.

The Canadian government has signed a deal with Germany to send liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the European nation.

The deal will see around one million tonnes of the resource delivered to the German government-owned company Securing Energy for Europe (SEFE) each year beginning in the early 2030s for upwards of 20 years. It will come from a yet-to-be-built Ksi Lisims project in northwestern British Columbia.

That means the product will be shipped down the Pacific Ocean,and then across the Atlantic Ocean, making for a lengthy trip.

It’s a trip that would be significantly shorter if the product was being shipped from Canada’s east coast as opposed to the west.

“Without wonking out on economics, it’s much cheaper to move LNG over water in a tanker than it is to pay tolls to ship it all across the country,” says Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson when asked why the gas isn’t piped across the country and then exported from Atlantic Canada.

“We are a reliable partner in a world where reliable partners are increasingly hard to find.”

Canada’s east coast does not currently have an operating LNG export facility. In southern New Brunswick, Saint John LNG has imported LNG for nearly 20 years on the Bay of Fundy. Without a retrofit of the plant, it does not have the capabilities to export the resource.

Speaking with reporters in Ottawa, Conservative Party Leader Piere Poilievre says there are three terminals in eastern Canada that were exploring the possibility of becoming an export site, before the government “killed” the projects, including Saint John LNG.

“There was the reversal of the Repsol terminal, which was going to take an existing import terminal and turn it into an export terminal and send it off to Europe in Saint John,” Poilievre says, while gesturing to Saint John-St. Croix Conservative MP John Williamson. “[His] constituents lost out on that opportunity when the Liberals killed that.”

While the federal government hasn’t indicated any current plans to create an LNG export facility on the east coast currently, leaders in the provinces remain hopeful their time will come.

New Brunswick Energy Minister René Legacy says there is a high demand for LNG worldwide. He says the province continues to have conversations with Ottawa but knows there are some challenges.

“We know that it’s more complicated bringing a pipeline across multiple provinces than maybe other jurisdictions,” Legacy says. “We’ve had ongoing discussions, not just on natural gas, but on the energy strategy. Still feel that New Brunswick can play a really key role in Canada to get this country to be the energy superpower that we want it to be.”

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston also shares optimism that Atlantic Canada’s time is coming.

He says Wednesday’s news puts an “exclamation point” on what is possible for Canada. He also says there is a fully permanent LNG facility in his province; it just needs the investment to get it up and running.

“There’s incredible potential for in LNG export facility in Nova Scotia,” Houstin says. “I think when you see the needs around the world and you understand the resource we have and the potential we have, I think the sky is really the limit.”

Ian Lee is an associate professor at the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University, where he teaches business strategy and public policy.

He says even in a world where people are looking for clean and sustainable energy options, the need for resources like LNG won’t be going away anytime soon. He says countries are in desperate need of energy, putting Canada in a good position to capitalize.

He says if the federal government removes barriers on issues like the much-debated east pipeline through Quebec, a large chunk of Europe could be calling Canada for LNG.

“Opportunities don’t just sit there waiting for you to wake up and to decide that there’s an opportunity,” says Lee. “Markets move very quickly, markets are very dynamic, and it doesn’t matter what the market is and what the opportunity is… the reason that the opportunities disappear is because someone else steps into the market and exploits them and seizes them.

“The question is, will the Prime Minister and his government spend the political capital needed to seize the moment and seize the opportunity?”