Canada Shipping Natural Gas to Asia as It Looks Beyond the US for Trade

The voyage of a tanker loaded with liquefied natural gas and headed to South Korea from British Columbia is a pivotal moment in Canadian trade, the government says.

It is the first natural gas shipment from a major Canadian plant to Asia as Canada looks to diversify its export markets in the aftermath of President Trump’s trade war and annexation threats.

The shipment on the Gaslog Glasgow comes a decade after a gas line project in Kitimat, British Columbia, was approved. Prime Minister Mark Carney has trumpeted the project, LNG Canada, whose plant, pipeline, gas fields, docks and other assets are worth 48 billion Canadian dollars (about $35 billion).

“Canada has what the world needs,” Mr. Carney said the day the tanker set off last week. “By turning aspiration into action, Canada can become the world’s leading energy superpower.”

The Canadian gas shipment to Asia comes amid domestic tensions over energy production.

Alberta, an oil-rich but landlocked province, is demanding more ports and the ability to run more pipelines through British Columbia to further globalize its own oil and gas market. But it’s meeting resistance from British Columbians who don’t relish more tanker traffic along their coastline or pipelines over their mountains. Environmental groups argue that exporting natural gas is incompatible with Canada’s commitments to fight climate change. And many Indigenous people are contesting a new federal law to accelerate the approval of pipelines on their lands.

A vast majority of Canada’s oil and gas flow south. It sold about $6 billion worth of natural gas to the United States last year. But increased U.S. gas production has led to a decline in Canadian exports since 2010. And in the past 10 years, the United States has become the largest supplier of liquefied gas in the world.