Brighter horizons for Canada's LNG exports

As expectations of a world glut fade, Canada’s long-suffering export projects look set to take on a new lustre

A number of factors have combined to engender optimism in Canada's liquefied natural gas sector. Increased Asia-Pacific demand, especially from the emissions-conscious Chinese market; gas producers looking to diversify exports away from their traditional US pipeline market; and progress on key domestic gas transmission arteries suggest additional final investment decisions are likely this year. World LNG imports in 2017 grew at their fastest rate since 2010, rising 9.9% year-on-year, to 289.8m tonnes, according to LNG-importers group GIIGNL. Most of the growth was attributable to Asian-Pacific markets, and to China in particular. Chinese LNG imports rose 43.3% last year from 2016, to 11.6m t