Canada will explore if it makes business sense to export LNG directly to Europe to help the world with energy supply, Canadian Minister Justin Trudeau said at a joint briefing with visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Businesses in Canada and Germany are holding economic conversations on the economic feasibility of Canadian exports of liquefied natural gas directly to Europe from Canada’s east coast, Trudeau added, noting that “we will do what we can to contribute to the global supply of energy.”
At the end of June, Trudeau said at the G7 summit in Germany that Canada could expand its energy infrastructure to help Europe cut off Russian gas dependence in the medium term.
“We will be there in the short term with any support we can,” Trudeau said, referring to possible Canadian support in energy supply to Europe.
Asked about discussions between Germany and Canada for possible LNG deals, the Canadian prime minister said in June that “LNG infrastructure is the same type of infrastructure that will be needed as we transition to hydrogen.”
Canada is “looking in the medium term at expanding some infrastructure, but in a way that hits that medium term and long term goal of accelerating the transition not just off Russian oil and gas, but off of our global dependence on fossil fuels because of the impacts of climate change,” said Trudeau.
In the short term, Canada cannot really help Europe with LNG supply as it doesn’t have any operational LNG export facility yet. Several projects have been proposed, discussed, and advanced in recent years, but none has progressed to an operational stage yet.
Europe, for its part, is desperate for LNG, or any gas that’s not coming from Russia, to replace as much Russian pipeline supply as soon as possible.
Russia’s Gazprom said last week it would stop all gas flows to Europe via Nord Stream from August 31 until September 2 due to maintenance work at a gas compressor station, which would be carried out with Siemens. Germany and the rest of Europe are concerned that supply via Nord Stream may not resume at all, or that they may restart at even lower volumes than the current 20% of the pipeline’s capacity.
