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The owner of the Saint John plant had meetings with the federal government in June on turning it into an export facility to help Europe wean itself off Russian oil and gas after the invasion of Ukraine. The plant currently imports liquefied natural gas from the United States, but plans were to retrofit it so it could export gas in about three years.Article content
“There are a number of potential projects, including one in Saint John, and some others that are on the books for which there has never been a strong business case because of the distance from the gas fields,” Scholz said at the time.Higgs said Repsol made it clear that the economics of transporting the gas by pipeline from Western Canada before shipping it to Europe “were just completely out of the question.
“But the gas supply component, which Repsol made very clear in their statement, did not meet the criteria, and basically made the economics not work.” The tolls to ship the gas by pipeline were “just too high” and made the project unviable, he added. Higgs said the “actual numbers” were not shared with him.