AltaGas is building the Ridley Island Energy Export Facility in Prince Rupert, expected to open by the end of the year.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Back in 2012, AltaGas Ltd. ALA-T faced a shrinking U.S. market for its propane.
So the Calgary energy company turned to Asia.
By 2025, AltaGas was exporting $2.9-billion a year of liquid petroleum gas to Asia, a majority of it propane, and had secured a sizable share of the Japanese market. As well, its business is growing in China and South Korea.
It’s a story that has received far less attention than Canada’s success at starting liquefied natural gas exports to Asia last year, or the increase in Canadian oil exports to China after the expansion of capacity on the Trans Mountain pipeline – two developments that have been hailed as early victories in the country’s push to diversify its trade away from the United States.
With a U.S.-initiated trade war weighing on the Canadian economy and clouding the future of continental free trade, finding overseas markets for Canadian resources has become a priority for governments and businesses alike. Prime Minister Mark Carney has spent his time in office travelling the world, partly in an attempt to forge new trade partnerships. His schedule over the next few weeks includes trips to Japan, India and Australia.
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But AltaGas has already done for propane and butanes what executives and politicians are now trying to do for countless other products that are made or extracted here. Its success is an indication of what may be possible if the country’s resource plans come to fruition, and a reminder that such overseas expansion often relies upon investment in export terminals at home.
“It’s been kind of under the radar,” James Shelford, AltaGas’s chief commercial officer, said of the company’s Asian-oriented export business growth in an interview.
Propane and butane are both widely used for cooking and heating in Asia. By 2024, AltaGas’s shipments hit 24 per cent of the Japanese propane market – all of which is imported. Its market share there dropped to 11 per cent in 2025 after a China-U.S. trade war sparked by President Donald Trump boosted Chinese demand for non-U.S. propane and AltaGas product was diverted there instead.
Japan is hungry for Canadian energy and critical minerals, a senior official with its Foreign Ministry told The Globe and Mail last fall. Toshihiro Kitamura, Director-General for press and public diplomacy, said energy security is one of the top priorities in Tokyo’s relations with Canada.
In addition to Japan last year, AltaGas made up 6 per cent of China’s propane import supply and 13 per cent of South Korea’s imported propane and butanes. “Between those three countries, there’s around 3.8 million barrels a day of demand,” Mr. Shelford said. In 2025, China bought 45 per cent of AltaGas’s LPG exports.
In all, the company is shipping about 125,000 barrels a day of liquid petroleum gas to Asia right now, he said. On an annualized basis that would exceed 45 million barrels.
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The company is building another petroleum gas export terminal to feed the demand from across the Pacific. The Ridley Island Energy Export Facility (REEF), in Prince Rupert on B.C.’s north coast, is expected to open by the end of 2026.
AltaGas turned its gaze to Asian markets back in 2012 when its U.S. market began shrinking. A key pipeline to ship propane into the United States was reversed to feed demand in the Canadian oil sands for a different petroleum product. At the same time, the shale gas boom in the United States was flooding the U.S. market with additional propane, a byproduct of natural gas production.
AltaGas realized “if our neighbours south of the border have their own supply and they’re also exporting it then we need to find a new market,” Mr. Shelford said.
Japan was looking to diversify its supply of propane, he said. The Asian country had previously relied on the Middle East for propane but shipments had to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a choke point that could be shut by Iranian military action.
Japanese buyers turned to the United States for propane but Canada’s West Coast – much closer than shipping through the Panama Canal from U.S. Gulf Coast terminals – was too attractive to pass up.
AltaGas began shipping to Japan and other markets in Asia in 2014 from the Washington State terminal of Ferndale, but only as a minority owner.
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Exports greatly expanded starting in 2019 when AltaGas opened the Ridley Island Propane Export Terminal (RIPET) in Prince Rupert, using rail cars to ship propane to B.C’s north coast. AltaGas owns 70 per cent of RIPET and Dutch multinational Vopak owns 30 per cent.
Prince Rupert is even closer to Japan than other West Coast ports by as much as one day’s shipping.
Mr. Shelford said another advantage of Prince Rupert is that AltaGas can ship product to Japanese buyers using docks specialized for tankers known as Very Large Gas Carriers (VLGCs) to transport the liquefied petroleum gas.
In 2022, AltaGas also became the sole owner of the Ferndale terminal and assumed full operational control of LPG shipments through this storage and export facility.
The new REEF terminal expansion by year-end will enable AltaGas to export an additional 56,000 b/d of LPGs to Asia every day, rising to 75,000 barrels “and then we can grow more into Japan, Korea and into China,” he said.
AltaGas and Vopak each own 50 per cent of REEF.
Canada is extremely reliant on the United States as an export market for its petroleum, a vulnerability that means U.S. buyers have traditionally enjoyed a discount when buying Canadian oil and gas because of the lack of capacity to ship to alternative markets. Canada’s dependence was highlighted when Mr. Trump returned to office with a penchant for using tariffs to squeeze trading partners. The President has repeatedly said the U.S. doesn’t need Canada’s oil and gas.
Goldy Hyder, president and chief executive officer of the Business Council of Canada, a lobby group, said AltaGas’s feat “clearly demonstrates that there is high demand for Canadian energy in Asia.” He said if Canada wants more economic sovereignty, “we need to find more ways to diversify our customer base.”