Saint John LNG terminal receives shipment from Australia

The latest shipment of liquefied natural gas to the Saint John LNG terminal travelled all the way from Australia.

The latest shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the Saint John LNG terminal travelled all the way from Australia, in what is believed to be the first shipment of the resource from the country to the East Coast.

The Maran Gas Hector, an LNG tanker that flies under the Greek flag, left Australia on Jan. 23 and arrived in Saint John Harbour late Wednesday night. The trip is more than 25,000 kilometres.

As of Thursday afternoon, the vessel remained anchored on the outskirts of the harbour near Lorneville.

Saint John LNG, which is a Canadian limited partnership owned by Repsol, confirmed it was getting set to receive an order of LNG from Australia, but did not provide any further comment.

According to Port Saint John vessel logs, three shipments of LNG have been dropped off at the terminal in the past month. The terminal tends to receive the most shipments during the peak winter months to keep up with the increased power demand.

Where those LNG orders originated from isn’t clear, but some past orders have been from countries such as Qatar.

Saint John LNG is an import hub only and does not have the capabilities to export the resource.

The facility offloads LNG from tankers, which are then pumped through pipes into storage tanks on site. From there, the resource is restored to its original form through a process called regasification. It is then fed through the Brunswick Pipeline to markets in the province and the United States.

The facility can supply 20 per cent of the natural gas needs in the U.S. northeast and heat up to five million homes daily.

New Brunswick Natural Resources Minister John Herron has previously expressed a desire to see the facility retrofitted to allow for both imports and exports of LNG out of the Bay of Fundy.

The news has seen some people on social media disappointed in the import of the resource from Australia when LNG is available in other parts of Canada.

When asked about the shipment of Australia LNG to Saint John, Federal Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Tim Hodgson said Nova Scotia is working on developing LNG in the province.

“We’ve had many conversations about this,” Hodgson said. “And I can tell you, when those resources are developed, we have a lot of allies around the world that want to buy them.”

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