Canadian Energy Centre
Opportunity knocks for Canada to become key LNG supplier as U.S. pauses projects

Rendering courtesy Cedar LNG
From the Canadian Energy Centre
By Cody Ciona
“Everyone wins if Canada can get into the game.”
Canada’s emerging liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry has an opportunity to become a key supplier for energy-hungry countries in Asia and beyond following the U.S. pause on new or pending LNG export approvals, industry watchers say.
With much of the world looking for alternatives to Russian natural gas following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the U.S. emerged as the number one global exporter of LNG. According to the International Energy Agency, the U.S. accounted for 80 per cent of additional supply in 2023.
But with the U.S. putting its LNG industry on pause, the timing could be good for Canada.
The recent completion of the Coastal Gaslink pipeline along with progress on Canada’s first LNG export projects are bringing Canada closer to becoming a key global supplier.
An opportunity to showcase clean LNG
As the LNG Canada terminal moves into its final stages of construction, Kitimat, B.C. will become the gateway for exports from Canada.
For First Nations LNG Alliance CEO Karen Ogen, this means Canada, which has so far missed the global LNG boom, will have another chance at becoming a player.
“I think this is an opportunity for us to showcase our clean LNG and I think we can do it through the various projects [underway].” Ogen said.
Those projects, which include LNG Canada and Woodfibre LNG that are under construction, along with the proposed Cedar LNG and Ksi Lisims LNG terminals, will operate with an emissions intensity less than half that of the global average.
Cedar LNG, headed by the Haisla First Nation, will operate at less than one-third of the global average.
Ogen said these projects will create significant prosperity, not just for Canada and B.C. but for Indigenous peoples as well.
“It’ll help boost our Canadian economy, it’ll help B.C.’s economy, and most specifically it will help the Indigenous people and our economy. If we’re the most disadvantaged population living in poverty, then this should help our people get out of poverty.” she said.
“Everyone wins if Canada can get into the game.”
Reduced LNG supply could increase reliance on coal
Racim Gribaa, founder and president of Global LNG Consulting Inc., said a potential decrease in LNG exports to international markets, particularly in Asia, may heighten dependence on coal, thereby escalating global emissions.
“If [importers] can’t get U.S. LNG, they would be left with very few viable alternatives including coal. And if they burn coal, that’s twice as much emissions. Coal is cheaper and reliable, but emits twice as much carbon. Countries in Asia such as China, with over 1,140 operational coal plants, are building new coal plants every week both in Asia and abroad,” Gribaa said.
Canada has a significant geographical advantage to supply LNG to Asia that can reduce associated transportation emissions by up to 60 per cent, he said.
Export terminals in B.C. are about half the distance to Asia compared to terminals on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
“The distance between Canada and the key market is a huge advantage, where we are the same distance to Asia as Australia,” Gribaa said.
“Monetizing natural gas in Canada through LNG exports not only will help reduce global emissions but it also will enhance health and economic well being of Canadians future generations.”
Establishing Canada’s LNG credibility
The starting point will be LNG Canada in 2025, which will allow Canada to export LNG on international scale, Gribaa said. It will help establish Canada’s credibility as a supplier, just as the U.S. pauses new development.
Once that credibility is established, Canadian LNG could become a bigger player on the global scale.
“Canada’s abundant natural gas reserves empower the nation to produce and export decades of dependable, cost-effective, and environmentally-friendly LNG to global markets, leveraging direct marine routes unaffected by constraints like the Panama or Suez Canals, the Strait of Hormuz, or having to navigate around the Cape of Good Hope,” Gribaa said.
“Canada stands poised to secure market share for years to come, irrespective of whether the U.S. temporarily halts or reconsiders its involvement.”
Alberta
The beauty of economic corridors: Inside Alberta’s work to link products with new markets

From the Canadian Energy Centre
Q&A with Devin Dreeshen, Minister of Transport and Economic Corridors
CEC: How have recent developments impacted Alberta’s ability to expand trade routes and access new markets for energy and natural resources?
Dreeshen: With the U.S. trade dispute going on right now, it’s great to see that other provinces and the federal government are taking an interest in our east, west and northern trade routes, something that we in Alberta have been advocating for a long time.
We signed agreements with Saskatchewan and Manitoba to have an economic corridor to stretch across the prairies, as well as a recent agreement with the Northwest Territories to go north. With the leadership of Premier Danielle Smith, she’s been working on a BC, prairie and three northern territories economic corridor agreement with pretty much the entire western and northern block of Canada.
There has been a tremendous amount of work trying to get Alberta products to market and to make sure we can build big projects in Canada again.
CEC: Which infrastructure projects, whether pipeline, rail or port expansions, do you see as the most viable for improving Alberta’s global market access?
Dreeshen: We look at everything. Obviously, pipelines are the safest way to transport oil and gas, but also rail is part of the mix of getting over four million barrels per day to markets around the world.
The beauty of economic corridors is that it’s a swath of land that can have any type of utility in it, whether it be a roadway, railway, pipeline or a utility line. When you have all the environmental permits that are approved in a timely manner, and you have that designated swath of land, it politically de-risks any type of project.
CEC: A key focus of your ministry has been expanding trade corridors, including an agreement with Saskatchewan and Manitoba to explore access to Hudson’s Bay. Is there any interest from industry in developing this corridor further?
Dreeshen: There’s been lots of talk [about] Hudson Bay, a trade corridor with rail and port access. We’ve seen some improvements to go to Churchill, but also an interest in the Nelson River.
We’re starting to see more confidence in the private sector and industry wanting to build these projects. It’s great that governments can get together and work on a common goal to build things here in Canada.
CEC: What is your vision for Alberta’s future as a leader in global trade, and how do economic corridors fit into that strategy?
Dreeshen: Premier Smith has talked about C-69 being repealed by the federal government [and] the reversal of the West Coast tanker ban, which targets Alberta energy going west out of the Pacific.
There’s a lot of work that needs to be done on the federal side. Alberta has been doing a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to economic corridors.
We’ve asked the federal government if they could develop an economic corridor agency. We want to make sure that the federal government can come to the table, work with provinces [and] work with First Nations across this country to make sure that we can see these projects being built again here in Canada.
Alberta
Alberta’s massive oil and gas reserves keep growing – here’s why

From the Canadian Energy Centre
Q&A with Mike Verney, executive vice-president, McDaniel & Associates
New analysis commissioned by the Alberta Energy Regulator has increased the province’s natural gas reserves by 440 per cent, bumping Canada into the global top 10.
Alberta’s oil reserves – already fourth in the world – also increased by seven billion barrels.
The report was conducted by Calgary-based consultancy McDaniel & Associates. Executive vice-president Mike Verney explains what it means.
CEC: What are “reserves” and why do they matter?
Verney: Reserves are commercial quantities of oil and gas to be recovered in the future. They are key indicators of future production potential.
For companies, that’s a way of representing the future value of their operations. And for countries, it’s important to showcase the runway they have in terms of the future of their oil and gas.
Some countries that have exploited a lot of their resource in the past have low reserves remaining. Canada is in a position where we still have a lot of meat on the bone in terms of those remaining quantities.
CEC: How long has it been since Alberta’s oil and gas reserves were comprehensively assessed?
Verney: Our understanding is the last fully comprehensive review was over a decade ago.
CEC: Does improvement in technology and innovation increase reserves?
Verney: Technological advancements and innovation play a crucial role in increasing reserves. New technologies such as advanced drilling techniques (e.g., hydraulic fracturing, horizontal drilling), enhanced seismic imaging and improved extraction methods enable companies to discover and access previously inaccessible reserves.
As these reserves get developed, the evolution of technology helps companies develop them better and better every year.
CEC: Why have Alberta’s natural gas reserves increased?
Verney: Most importantly, hydraulic fracturing has unlocked material volume, and that’s one of the principal reasons why the new gas estimate is so much higher than what it was in the past.
The performance of the wells that are being drilled has also gotten better since the last comprehensive study.
The Montney competes with every American tight oil and gas play, so we’re recognizing the future potential of that with the gas reserves that are being assigned.
In addition, operators continue to expand the footprint of the Alberta Deep Basin.
CEC: Why have Alberta’s oil reserves increased?
Verney: We discovered over two billion barrels of oil reserves associated with multilateral wells, which is a new technology. In a multilateral well, you drill one vertical well to get to the zone and then once you hit the zone you drill multiple legs off of that one vertical spot. It has been a very positive game-changer.
Performance in the oil sands since the last comprehensive update has also gone better than expected. We’ve got 22 thermal oil sands projects that are operating, and in general, expectations in terms of recovery are higher than they were a decade ago.
Oil sands production has grown substantially in the past decade, up 70 per cent, from two million to 3.4 million barrels per day. The growth of several projects has increased confidence in the commercial viability of developing additional lands.
CEC: What are the implications of Alberta’s reserves in terms of the province’s position as a world energy supplier?
Verney: We’re seeing LNG take off in the United States, and we’re seeing lots of demand from data centers. Our estimate is that North America will need at least 30 billion cubic feet per day of more gas supply in the next few years, based on everything that’s been announced. That is a very material number, considering the United States’ total natural gas production is a little over 100 billion cubic feet per day.
In terms of oil, since the shale revolution in 2008 there’s been massive growth from North America, and the rest of the world hasn’t grown oil production. We’re now seeing that the tight plays in the U.S. aren’t infinite and are showing signs of plateauing.
Specifically, when we look at the United States’ largest oil play, the Permian, it has essentially been flat at 5.5 million barrels per day since December 2023. Flat production from the Permian is contrary to the previous decade, where we saw tight oil production grow by half a million barrels per day per year.
Oil demand has gone up by about a million barrels a day per year for the past several decades, and at this point we do expect that to continue, at the very least in the near term.
Given the growing demand for oil and the stagnation in supply growth since the shale revolution, it’s expected that Alberta’s oil sands reserves will become increasingly critical. As global oil demand continues to rise, and with limited growth in production from other sources, oil sands reserves will be relied upon more heavily.
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