The brand new CEO of pipeline large Enbridge Inc. says regulatory uncertainty on this nation has led to a “misplaced decade” for Canadian liquefied pure fuel manufacturing.
Greg Ebel, who took over from Enbridge’s outgoing CEO Al Monaco final month, made the feedback in an interview following the discharge of the corporate’s fourth-quarter monetary outcomes.
Ebel — who was beforehand the CEO of Spectra Vitality, which Enbridge acquired in February 2017 — mentioned he was in Ottawa final week speaking to cupboard ministers about the necessity to speed up vitality infrastructure improvement on this nation.
He identified that the US solely began exporting liquefied pure fuel (LNG) in 2016.
However simply over eight years later, in response to the US Vitality Info Administration, the US now has extra LNG export capability than every other nation and has exported extra LNG than every other nation.
US LNG exports averaged 11.1 billion cubic ft per day (Bcf/d) throughout the first half of 2022, in response to the EIA, whereas Canada doesn’t but have a single LNG export terminal in operation.
“Okay, that is a misplaced alternative for Canada,” Ebel mentioned, including Enbridge’s pipelines at the moment provide pure fuel to 5 working LNG export amenities on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
He mentioned the corporate was nonetheless fascinated with additional acquisitions within the Gulf area that would speed up its vitality export technique.
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“As somebody chargeable for allocating each human capital and monetary capital, I’ve to do it the place it appears most welcome,” he mentioned.
“My first alternative could be to do it proper right here in our yard, but when that is not attainable, then we’ve to allocate it in several elements … and that is why you see this superb manufacturing, in each infrastructure and alternatives, on the Gulf Coast. “
Progress with LNG is being made right here in Canada, with LNG Canada’s huge LNG export terminal being constructed close to Kitimat, BC, and Enbridge’s personal Woodfibre LNG – a partnership with Singapore’s Pacific Vitality Corp. – additionally permitted.
Proponents say with Western Canada’s huge reserves of pure fuel, there’s room to broaden the nation’s LNG trade much more — one thing they are saying might assist different elements of the world cut back their reliance on coal and tackle world vitality safety points. to talk
However issues about local weather change and the approaching vitality transition have created an unsure vitality funding atmosphere.
For instance, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has prompt there’s not a enterprise case for an LNG export terminal on Canada’s Atlantic coast, though advocates have mentioned such a facility might assist wean Europe off Russian vitality.
“Our G7 colleagues are crying out for vitality … they’re knocking on the door and we are not answering,” Ebel mentioned.
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Vitality infrastructure tasks on this nation have additionally been affected by value overruns and delays in recent times.
TC Vitality Corp. just lately revealed that the worth tag for its Coastal GasLink pipeline challenge — which can transport pure fuel throughout northern BC to the LNG Canada export terminal — has risen to $14.5 billion, up from $6.6 billion a yr in the past .
Final February, the Crown company behind the Trans Mountain pipeline enlargement challenge – which can improve oil transport capability from Alberta to the West Coast – introduced that the brand new value of the challenge was an estimated $21.4 billion, up from an earlier estimate of $12, 6 billion.
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Within the case of Trans Mountain, the ballooning price ticket has been blamed partly on “scheduling pressures associated to the allowing course of” in addition to route modifications to keep away from culturally and environmentally delicate areas.
“You want stability to permit, and also you want certainty to permit,” Ebel mentioned, including he believes Canadian policymakers want to acknowledge that this nation has a “world duty” to export vitality to its allies .
“We appear to be centered on ourselves generally,” Ebel mentioned.
“We’re a comparatively small nation from a inhabitants perspective, and an enormous nation from an vitality manufacturing perspective. So we higher determine it out.”
© 2023 The Canadian Press
