Financial Times: Natural gas: Asia beckons as promising market for LNG

As the US shale gas glut undermines demand for Canada’s natural gas, can output from above the 49th parallel find a market by going west to Asia?

Several projects are proposed for exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) from terminals on the northern coast of British Columbia, to establish Canada as a leading provider to energy-hungry Asian economies.

The task of finding new export markets for Canada, the world’s third-largest producer of natural gas, is particularly pressing now that its dominant customer – the US – is awash with it.

Joe Oliver, Canada’s minister of natural resources, accepts that the country must look west across the Pacific rather than to the south and east to profitably extend the exploitation of its gas reserves – assuming the tricky problem of extraction and preparation for transocean transportation can be solved.  MORE