Germany Wants To Shift Gas Supplies From Russia To Canada At Warp Speed But Developing Lng Export Capacity Could Take Years

Germany wants to move away from Russian gas at “warp speed”, the German chancellor said on Tuesday. Although Canada has said a partnership with would be possible, researchers doubt additional supplies will come from Canada soon enough. Canada currently lacks export capacity and that development could take years, a report says.

Germany wants to lean on Canada as it becomes less dependent on Russian gas, according to recent comments from German Chancellor Olaf Scholz — but the transition could be difficult, as Canada currently lacks the capacity to export LNG and the its development can take years, researchers say. “As Germany moves away from Russian energy at high speed, Canada is our partner of choice,” Scholz told a conference on Tuesday, shortly after Canada’s prime minister said LNG exports to Germany would be “complete”. That would open a window for Germany to stop relying on Russian fuel – and possibly prevent a major energy crisis from hitting the nation this winter. Before the invasion of Ukraine, Russia supplied 32% of Germany’s LNG consumption, according to Reuters, meaning it was one of the nations suffering the most as Europe is cut off from Russian energy supplies. But researchers doubt additional supplies from Canada will be forthcoming soon. Canada lacks the infrastructure to export LNG abroad and is currently building two terminals on its west coast. But it will take at least three years for the first terminal to be completed, a report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development said – and by then, EU think tanks believe Europe will have already moved away from Russian fuel. “Despite recent calls to support Germany’s immediate needs, Canadian LNG infrastructure cannot be scaled up in time to meet Europe’s short-term needs,” the report said, adding that it would be more realistic to turn to countries such as Norway. However, a source told Reuters that Scholz was “well aware of the kind of timeline that would be attached” to the new Canadian infrastructure and Germany was “pretty keen on gas almost anywhere” given the current supply crunch. Since the Russian sanctions began, Canada has said it has the capacity to produce an additional 200,000 barrels of oil and 100,000 barrels of natural gas per day. Since it has no infrastructure for overseas exports, the vast majority of this fuel is purchased from the US, which has become the world’s leading supplier of LNG. Read the original article on Business Insider

title: “Germany Wants To Shift Gas Supplies From Russia To Canada At Warp Speed But Developing Lng Export Capacity Could Take Years " ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-03” author: “John Finney”