Reality bites for Canada

Canada's export plans are among the world's most ambitious. And slowest to get moving

What was once seen as a window of opportunity is fast closing amid a glut of onshore North American supply and a surfeit of global liquefied natural gas. Canada's biggest gas customer, the US, is now its biggest competitor as it moves forward with its own exports through the Gulf of Mexico. Some fear it may already be too late for Canada to begin its own large-scale LNG exports by the end of the decade. A shortage of ideas to monetise vast western Canadian gas resources is not the problem. The federal regulator, the National Energy Board, has granted 28 export licences to hopeful projects. Another five are under review. It adds up to 293.5m tonnes a year (or 38.6bn cubic feet a day) of propo