The prime minister of Greece wants Canadian liquified natural gas, but providing it is not on the agenda of the prime minister of Canada.Kyriakos Mitsotakis was the first Greek leader to come to Canada in more than 40 years.According to the office of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Mitsotakis was here on a goodwill visit to march in Montreal’s Greek Independence Day Parade, discuss “shared interests” and cut the ribbon as Greece purchased Canadian-made firefighting planes.But, during an interview with CTV, Mitsotakis said his country would “of course” like to start importing Canadian LNG..“We are a big entry point for LNG, not just for the Greek market, but also for the Balkans, for Eastern Europe. Theoretically, we could even supply Ukraine,” said Mitsotakis, a Harvard-educated investment banker.“In principle, yes, we are very interested in obtaining LNG at competitive prices."Mitsotakis said Greece has built a major facility outside the city of Alexandroupolis to process incoming LNG tankers. He said Greece will pump LNG to the rest of Europe and needs more at home as the country abandons coal.Much of Europe’s energy has traditionally come from Russia or Middle Eastern autocracies.“Canada is a country (for) which we share so many values," said Mitsotakis. "I think we see eye-to-eye on many of the challenges that we face.”Regardless, there was no mention of energy exports in Trudeau’s public comments regarding Mitsotakis, nor in official government communications about the visit.In the past 18 months, both the Japanese prime minister and the German chancellor returned home without official assurances that Ottawa shared their vision for sourcing bulk quantities of LNG from Canada.Germany turned to Qatar instead and signed a 15-year LNG export deal.Canada is currently the world’s fifth largest producer of natural gas. But, as is the case with oil, facilities to sell it overseas are very limited. Canada has no LNG export facilities currently operating. Any LNG exports to Europe would have to go through a US export terminal.Kitimat, BC will open a major export facility in early 2025, but plans to build an LNG pipeline to ports on the East Coast have fallen apart due to high costs.On Monday, Alberta Energy Minister Brian Jean said “onerous” regulatory procedures were more to blame.“With massive natural gas reserves, Canada can no longer wait on the LNG sidelines, burdened by an onerous regulatory system. Our allies and trading partners need us. We must have more LNG export facilities approved and built,” Jean said in a statement.Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida came to Canada in January, 2023 making no secret of his “high expectations” to reach an LNG export agreement with Canada.In August 2022, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz came to Canada hoping to reach an LNG deal.“Canada is our partner of choice,” Scholz said at the time.However, Trudeau said at a press conference with the German leader that there was no “business case” for LNG exports to Europe. He took the chancellor to an empty field in Newfoundland that was the chosen site for a future Canadian facility to export carbon-neutral hydrogen.
The prime minister of Greece wants Canadian liquified natural gas, but providing it is not on the agenda of the prime minister of Canada.Kyriakos Mitsotakis was the first Greek leader to come to Canada in more than 40 years.According to the office of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Mitsotakis was here on a goodwill visit to march in Montreal’s Greek Independence Day Parade, discuss “shared interests” and cut the ribbon as Greece purchased Canadian-made firefighting planes.But, during an interview with CTV, Mitsotakis said his country would “of course” like to start importing Canadian LNG..“We are a big entry point for LNG, not just for the Greek market, but also for the Balkans, for Eastern Europe. Theoretically, we could even supply Ukraine,” said Mitsotakis, a Harvard-educated investment banker.“In principle, yes, we are very interested in obtaining LNG at competitive prices."Mitsotakis said Greece has built a major facility outside the city of Alexandroupolis to process incoming LNG tankers. He said Greece will pump LNG to the rest of Europe and needs more at home as the country abandons coal.Much of Europe’s energy has traditionally come from Russia or Middle Eastern autocracies.“Canada is a country (for) which we share so many values," said Mitsotakis. "I think we see eye-to-eye on many of the challenges that we face.”Regardless, there was no mention of energy exports in Trudeau’s public comments regarding Mitsotakis, nor in official government communications about the visit.In the past 18 months, both the Japanese prime minister and the German chancellor returned home without official assurances that Ottawa shared their vision for sourcing bulk quantities of LNG from Canada.Germany turned to Qatar instead and signed a 15-year LNG export deal.Canada is currently the world’s fifth largest producer of natural gas. But, as is the case with oil, facilities to sell it overseas are very limited. Canada has no LNG export facilities currently operating. Any LNG exports to Europe would have to go through a US export terminal.Kitimat, BC will open a major export facility in early 2025, but plans to build an LNG pipeline to ports on the East Coast have fallen apart due to high costs.On Monday, Alberta Energy Minister Brian Jean said “onerous” regulatory procedures were more to blame.“With massive natural gas reserves, Canada can no longer wait on the LNG sidelines, burdened by an onerous regulatory system. Our allies and trading partners need us. We must have more LNG export facilities approved and built,” Jean said in a statement.Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida came to Canada in January, 2023 making no secret of his “high expectations” to reach an LNG export agreement with Canada.In August 2022, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz came to Canada hoping to reach an LNG deal.“Canada is our partner of choice,” Scholz said at the time.However, Trudeau said at a press conference with the German leader that there was no “business case” for LNG exports to Europe. He took the chancellor to an empty field in Newfoundland that was the chosen site for a future Canadian facility to export carbon-neutral hydrogen.
