GNL Québec is continuing its offensive to try to relaunch its project to export liquefied natural gas from the Saguenay. The company will make a very detailed presentation to promote its industrial complex and maritime terminal project on July 12 to the “France-Quebec friendship group” of the French Senate. The documents, however, make no mention of rejections by the governments of Quebec and Canada.
Almost a year after the official rejection of the Énergie Saguenay liquefaction plant and marine export terminal project by the Quebec government, Symbio Infrastructure, which is piloting Énergie Saguenay and the gas pipeline project, is coming back with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) production complex in the wake of the war in Ukraine.
Symbio Infrastructure President Jim Illich will make a presentation to the French Senate’s “France-Quebec Friendship Group” next Tuesday, July 12 at 2:00 p.m. The news, which was first published by The other journalwas confirmed on Friday at To have to by the communications department of the Senate of France.
“The President of the France-Quebec Friendship Group of the Senate, Rémy Pointereau, invited Sophie Primas, President of the Economic Affairs Committee, as well as Daniel Gremillet, who follows energy issues in this committee as well as in the European Affairs of the Senate”, specified the spokesman of the upper house of the French Parliament.
“All members of the France-Quebec and France-Canada friendship groups have been invited,” it added, indicating that at least two French senators had already confirmed their presence. However, it was not possible to know whether representatives from Quebec or Canada will be present at this meeting.
Production in 2027
Relatively unknown, the “France-Quebec Interparliamentary Friendship Group” brings together senators “who have or wish to have a privileged relationship with a country”, it was argued, specifying that there are several of these groups of links with different states. “Privileged instruments of bilateral cooperation between parliaments, these groups have become key players in parliamentary diplomacy. »
Jim Illich will therefore explain the details of the Saguenay liquefaction plant project, the export terminal and the 780 kilometer gas pipeline. “The Énergie Saguenay facility, with a capacity of 10.5 million tonnes per year, will receive, liquefy and export approximately 15 billion cubic meters per day of natural gas produced responsibly from Western Canada. and should start its activities in 2027”, can we read in a document which essentially repeats the arguments already put forward by the promoters. The document was first posted online Thursday by The other journal.
Symbio Infrastructure thus reaffirms that its project would be “carbon neutral”, that it would “reduce global emissions” of greenhouse gases, that it would be powered by Hydro-Québec and that its port on the Saguenay would be ideally located to supply Europe. The promoters repeat, moreover, as they have been doing for several months now, that the energy crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is stimulating global demand for LNG.
When filing the first draft of its project in 2016, Énergie Saguenay argued instead that the plant’s raison d’être was to find international outlets for the growing gas production in Alberta, due to the use of hydraulic fracturing.
Hydrogen and gas pipeline
Citing its “current activities”, the company says it is “exploring opportunities to overcome regulatory hurdles to help Canada and Quebec be part of the solution to the energy shortage, climate crisis and geopolitical unrest in Europe”.
These “regulatory hurdles” include the fact that the Trudeau government and the Government of Quebec have both closed the door to the plant and marine terminal project, under the terms of environmental assessments which have rejected the main arguments promoted by promoters. As for the gas pipeline, it never completed the environmental assessment process that had been launched.
Never mind, Symbio Infrastructure puts a new argument on the table. The company says it also wants to export “green hydrogen” from its future infrastructures on Quebec soil. You should know that the federal government has opened the door to the realization of new LNG export projects in Eastern Canada, provided that the projects provide for an eventual conversion to the marketing of hydrogen.
Moreover, Symbio Infrastructure repeats that it wants to build a “carbon-neutral” gas pipeline, in “collaboration” with the First Nations. It is pointed out at the same time that the details on the location of the gas pipeline have already been specified, but also that “environmental studies” have been completed.
War and LNG
What is the purpose of presenting GNL Québec to members of the Senate of France? The company did not respond directly to this question from To have to. “Europe is making important decisions about securing its energy supplies, in particular by seeking to reduce its dependence on Russian energy or by integrating Canada as a preferred source of LNG,” the company argued in a statement. written response.
“We are unable to comment on our discussions with governments, but the carbon neutral Énergie Saguenay project continues to generate interest and is ideally positioned to help our transatlantic allies find a solution to their geopolitical and while presenting the best Canada and Quebec have to offer,” added GNL Quebec.
In addition to the planned presentation to members of the Senate of France, GNL Québec is continuing its lobbying efforts with the federal government. In particular, “communications” have taken place with political advisers to the Canadian Minister of Natural Resources, Jonathan Wilkinson, in recent months.
However, the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada ruled that the LNG Quebec project would harm Canada’s climate efforts, and in particular the achievement of “carbon neutrality” by 2050. Its report also dismissed the argument of GNL Québec according to which natural gas would be a partner in the “energy transition”. The passage of 320 LNG carriers each year on the Saguenay would also have represented a potential major risk for endangered marine mammals, including the St. Lawrence beluga, according to the federal organization. Federal law prohibits harming the habitat of this endangered species.