The US has long been Alberta's biggest customer for natural gas.
Now it’s Alberta’s biggest competitor in Asian markets as Canada prepares to begin large-scale — and tariff-free — exports off the British Columbia coast.
In an exclusive interview with The Western Standard, Premier Danielle Smith coined the onomatopoeic tongue twister ‘custompretitor’—or something like it—to describe the present arrangement with the world’s largest natural gas consumer, which has become the planet’s largest LNG exporter in just 10 short years.
And Smith is touting Alberta’s ‘soft’ dimplomacy over the intimidation tactics of the US to force Asian buyers into funding multi-billion dollar LNG developments in Alaska.
“I think in some ways, we've looked to the United States because there have been a great friend and ally in the past, they are easy to get to from a transportation cost point of view, and so complacency set in. But I think that because of the change in the relationship that we now have, it puts us in a good position to be talking about export of everything.”
Just in time.
Even as Smith was courting potential Asian buyers, US president Donald Trump’s minions were in Korea this week using the threat of tariffs to cajole Japan, Korea and even Taiwan to invest in a USD$44 billion pipeline and LNG export terminal in Alaska.
On Monday, CNBC and Bloomberg reported that the US long-time Asian allies are considering investing in the massive gas project in a bid to reach trade deals that would satisfy demands from Trump and avoid high tariffs on their exports.
Alaska has long sought to build a 1,300-kilometre pipeline from the North Slope to the Cook Inlet where gas would be exported to Asia. But the high cost has kept it firmly stuck on the drawing board for more than a decade.
But Smith said Alberta has some natural advantages over the US in the emerging geopolitical LNG landscape. Apart from ‘soft’ diplomacy in the form of long-established regional and personal relationships, shipping distances from the BC coasts are substantially shorter.
And, after nearly a decade of fits and starts, the LNG Canada terminal is finally set to begin shipping gas even as Alaska has to start essentially from scratch.
“I coined a term some time ago called ‘co-ompet-peration’, and I think that that really is what we have with the Americans. This is what the case is that I'm attempting to make to them (the Asians) because I don't know how long it's going to be for them (the Americans) to be able to build that project,” she said.
“I know they're trying to expedite the permitting around that, but we're right here right now, we're able to start exporting to these to this region, and the demand, in some ways, is almost limitless, especially when you're looking at LNG.”
Smith agreed that it isn’t too late for Canada to become a major LNG player if it can find the political will to advance even a handful of the more than dozen proposals that have been proposed — and shelved — over the years.
“Yes, the Americans are, are going to benefit when they do get their Alaskan pipeline built, but Canada can benefit by having been there first and also having many advanced projects,” she said.
“That's part of the reason why we just can't have the kind of delays in Canada that we have had historically. It can't be 10 and 20 and 30-year delays to be able to get through a permitting and approval process. And so I think that the country has now realized that this is the time for us to seize the day and to get to that market first. And I think we'll really benefit from doing so.”