Canada will sign a large-scale LNG agreement with Germany’s SEFE for liquefied natural gas from the Ksi Lisims planned export facility on the coast of British Columbia, according to an industry source.
The agreement, to be announced Wednesday in Vancouver by Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson, comes as Ksi Lisims’ backers have been working to finalize contracts with purchasers before making an expected final investment decision this year.
Ksi Lisims, SEFE and Canada’s natural resources ministry declined to comment.
Bloomberg first reported the plans.
Shell and TotalEnergies have already signed 20-year LNG purchase agreements with Ksi Lisims.
The Ksi Lisims facility is proposed by Houston-based Western LNG, a consortium of Canadian natural gas producers called Rockies LNG, and the Nisga’a First Nation, who own the land for the project. It will have a capacity of 12 million tonnes of LNG per year, making it Canada’s second-largest LNG export facility.
SEFE, short for Securing Energy for Europe, was nationalised by Germany for 6.3 billion euros in 2022 after former parent Gazprom ditched the business during Europe’s energy crisis.
Like Uniper, the company is tasked with diversifying Germany’s energy supply, especially in the wake of the current Middle East conflict that has increased European interest in energy security.
SEFE already has a variety of LNG deals that include agreements with U.S.-based Venture Global, Argentina’s Southern Energy S.A. and Turkey’s state energy company BOTAS, among others. Reuters reported last month that European buyers, including Germany’s Uniper, are exploring the possibility of purchasing liquefied natural gas from Canada’s Pacific coast and shipping it through the Panama Canal as part of a long-term strategy to diversify supply, an effort made more urgent in the wake of the Iran war.
(Reporting by Amanda Stephenson and Christoph Steitz; Editing by Mark Porter and Deepa Babington)