Wudang, a liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker, fills up at an LNG Canada facility in Kitimat, B.C., November, 2025.ETHAN CAIRNS/The Canadian Press
A new report from the Canadian energy industry sees Asia as crucial for Canada to diversify away from the United States, raising hopes for expanding exports of liquefied natural gas from British Columbia.
The U.S. and Israel began assaults on Iran in late February, resulting in the virtual shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz for long stretches of time. About 20 per cent of the world’s LNG normally passes through the strait and most of it is en route to Asian markets. LNG shipments from B.C. to Asia avoid the Strait of Hormuz’s clogged supply chains.
“Energy markets are under strain as historic certainties fade and countries seek reliable, alternative energy suppliers insulated from geopolitical choke points,” according to an open letter released on Thursday by Energy for a Secure Future, a coalition backed by the Canadian natural gas industry.
The letter was signed by three of the coalition’s advisers: Karen Ogen, chief executive officer of the First Nations Natural Gas Alliance; Sean Strickland, executive director of Canada’s Building Trades Unions; and Martin Castro, president of steel pipe manufacturer Tenaris Canada.
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Mr. Strickland and Mr. Castro are members of the coalition’s advisory council, while Ms. Ogen heads an affiliate organization.
“When we build, we create prosperity, opportunity and a stronger future for our country and our communities,” they wrote in their letter as they released a coalition-commissioned report titled When Our Nation Builds.
The report asserts that the Montney region of northeast B.C. is a valuable Canadian resource for natural gas, with enormous economic benefits locally and nationally when the gas is transported by the Coastal GasLink pipeline to the West Coast and supercooled into liquid form for export to Asia.
“Canadian LNG can provide Asian countries with a more secure and geopolitically stable energy supply,” according to the report.
Shell PLC-led LNG Canada became this country’s first export terminal for the fuel when it started shipping in mid-2025 to Asia from Kitimat, B.C.
London-based Shell and LNG Canada’s other co-owners are expected to make a final investment decision later this year on a Phase 2 expansion. Under Phase 2, the Kitimat terminal’s export capacity could double to as much as 30 million tonnes a year.
Critics say climate and health effects are being ignored, and the focus needs to be on renewable energy instead of fossil fuels.
Those criticizing LNG include My Sea to Sky, the David Suzuki Foundation and the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.
A joint news release by those three groups and other critics of LNG warned about the effects of LNG Canada’s excessive flaring of natural gas at the Kitimat industrial site. Flaring involves the controlled burning of natural gas.
“I can clearly say that LNG Canada is a huge polluter whose site emissions appeared to be equivalent to or exceed that of anything that I have witnessed to date in the U.S.,” Tim Doty, an air monitoring expert for nearly three decades in Texas, said in a statement accompanying the joint news release on Wednesday.
LNG Canada responded by saying that its export terminal is in the early stages of operations. “We will continue to report transparently to regulators, Indigenous partners and the community as we reduce flaring and progress toward steady, long-term operations,” LNG Canada spokesperson Paul Hagel said in an e-mail.
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Export Development Canada, a federal Crown corporation, is positioned to further support growth in LNG shipments. “That is part of a trade diversification agenda, which sits squarely in our mandate of how we grow our non-U.S. exports, and LNG is definitely going to be part of that,” EDC chief executive officer Alison Nankivell said in an interview this week.
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced last year that LNG Canada’s Phase 2 plans made the list of significant ventures of national interest to be considered for fast-tracking by the federal government’s Major Projects Office.
The Nisga’a Nation-backed Ksi Lisims LNG proposal in northwest B.C. also made Ottawa’s fast-tracking list.
There are also two projects under construction in B.C. to produce the fuel, with the goal to export to Asia. Woodfibre LNG near Squamish is slated to finish building by late 2027, and Haisla Nation-led Cedar LNG in Kitimat is set for completion by late 2028.