Three years ago, Justin Trudeau, then prime minister, declared that there has “never been a strong business case” for liquefied natural gas exports from Canada’s East Coast to Europe.
How times (and the federal government) have changed: Now we have Ottawa on side: Energy Minister Tim Hodgson says he’s confident there’s a market for Canadian LNG. “Our allies are very interested in Canadian LNG. . . . I know there are buyers.”
And today we have industry and governments looking at opportunities to send our LNG to Europe.
Fermeuse Energy has announced plans for a $15-billion LNG project off the coast of Newfoundland, and says this would never have happened without policy changes introduced by Prime Minister Mark Carney.
The Fermeuse development would include a 380-km pipeline to carry gas from the offshore Jeanne d’Arc Basin to a liquefaction facility in Fermeuse, about 90 km south of St. John’s.
Fermeuse said in a news release: “The estimated $12-15 billion project promises significant economic benefits, including provincial royalties, and alignment with national and global need for energy security.”
Swapan Kataria, CEO of Fermeuse Energy and its project partner, UK-based Crown LNG, says: “It’s much easier to build a project in Fermeuse and connect it with Europe than to bring (natural gas) all the way from Alberta to Nova Scotia and load it on a vessel. I think both need to be done, but this is much faster to market. . . . This one will start now.”
He added: “Give or take, 54 to 60 months, we should be able to export if we do not get delayed with the regulatory process.”
At the same time, the New Brunswick government has approached Canadian pipeline operator TC Energy and Spanish energy firm Repsol to reopen talks on a proposed LNG export terminal at St. John’s.
The site is home to the Saint John LNG import terminal, which typically brings in LNG during the winter to serve the Maritimes and the northeast US.
Repsol abandoned a proposal to develop a liquefaction facility in Saint John in 2023, citing the of moving natural gas from Western Canada.
But now New Brunswick’s minister of natural resources, John Herron, is discussing a new natural-gas pipeline to connect a pipeline that ends in Quebec City to the port of Saint John.
Such a new pipeline has been called “the missing link” that would create an all-Canadian pipeline route from Western Canada to the Maritimes. Their gas from the west now flows in part through a pipeline link in the US, which is subject at any time to control by the US government.
Herron says: “We need to get to that European market in the next three to four years. The only site in Canada that can get to market within three to four years would be a location that has pre-existing LNG infrastructure and pipeline infrastructure, and that is Saint John.” And he adds: ““This is a national project.”
New Brunswick’s Herron said the new Canadian pipeline link would initially be owned by New Brunswick First Nations and the federal government, with the private sector eventually purchasing the government’s share.
Ottawa won’t say if natural-gas and LNG exports will be included when the feds announce, sometime in the fall, which natural-resource and energy projects will be fast-tracked under its new approach and new Major Projects Office.
But Prime Minister Carney has spoken of development of the port at Churchill MB, and says that would open up “enormous” LNG export potential. Hodgson says that could mean Canadian LNG reaching Europe in five to seven years.
Meanwhile, resource advocate Resource Works says: “The question is whether Canada can move fast enough.”
Resource Works notes that half of Europe’s LNG comes from the US Gulf Coast, and adds: ”That infrastructure advantage, billions of dollars worth of liquefaction plants, pipelines, and tankers, is something Canada does not have.”
In the meantime, Hodgson says Germany buyers have expressed interest in “swapping” LNG imported from other countries for Asia-bound exports from BC. That would mean, for example, a buyer of an Asia-bound cargo of BC LNG trading it to a European or other buyer.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, and Prime Minster Mark Carney
(Posted here 05 Sept. 2025)
