GNL Québec returns to the charge and announces that it has reached an agreement to supply Ukraine, despite the rejection by Québec and Ottawa of its Énergie Saguenay natural gas liquefaction plant project.
Updated yesterday at 5:48 p.m.
The parent company of GNL Québec, Symbio Infrastructure, announced Friday afternoon by press release the conclusion of an agreement in principle (memorandum of understanding) with the Ukrainian public company Naftogaz to supply it with liquefied natural gas (LNG) from 2027, but also liquid hydrogen.
The agreement, signed on June 5 in Washington, provides that the LNG and hydrogen will pass through a European country “agreed upon by mutual agreement”.
The Quebec government had however refused to authorize the Énergie Saguenay project, almost a year ago, and the Canadian government had in turn rejected the project, last February.
The Symbio press release does not mention this double refusal, but underlines Canada’s “strong interest” in “helping Europe to face its energy crisis and its need to diversify its LNG supply”.
Ukraine has not imported Russian gas since 2014, however, said Naftogaz CEO Yuriy Vitrenko, quoted in the statement.
GNL Québec did not indicate how it intended to materialize the agreement concluded with Naftogaz, which it did not want to show The Press.
A “smoke show”
Symbio’s announcement is “futile”, because GNL Quebec will not be able to “overcome” the refusals of Quebec and Ottawa, judged the Coalition Fjord, a Saguenéenne organization which fought against the Énergie Saguenay project. .
“It’s a futile announcement, it’s still a smoke show”, declared to The Press Camille-Amélie Koziej Lévesque, on behalf of the organization.
GNL Quebec could decide to submit a new project, but it should respect “the same conditions” that had been required for the previous one, indicated the Quebec Minister of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change, Benoit Charette.
In such a context, we are therefore talking about a process of several years, which makes it difficult to see how such a project could constitute a solution to the current supply problems in Ukraine, or even in Europe.
Benoit Charette, Quebec Minister of the Environment and the Fight Against Climate Change, in a written statement
A new project should also “follow the transparent process provided by the Impact Assessment Act of Canada, underlined the office of the federal Minister of Natural Resources, Jonathan Wilkinson.
Ottawa intends to help diversify Ukraine’s and Europe’s energy supply, but will do so “in a way that ensures any resulting emissions are part of Canada’s climate plan,” the attaché said. press of the minister, Keean Nembhard.
GNL Québec “shows unbounded arrogance and is disrespectful towards the federal and provincial governments who have rejected this project in a clear and clear way following rigorous and science-based environmental assessment processes”, declared Patrick Bonin, spokesperson for Greenpeace Canada’s climate-energy campaign.
“What Ukraine and the planet need is to quickly get rid of fossil fuels,” he added.
Focus on clean energies
Symbio’s announcement also made the opposition parties jump in Quebec.
“We have just passed a bill to get Quebec out of hydrocarbons. What don’t the promoters of GNL Québec understand in the word “no”? asked Manon Massé, spokesperson for Québec solidaire.
“The future is in clean energies, and it is completely wrong to believe that we are doing anyone a favor by perpetuating our dependence on hydrocarbons,” added his colleague Émilise Lessard-Therrien, responsible for environmental files.
“The conflict in Ukraine, although unfortunate and reprehensible, remains a situational event that must not deviate us from a trajectory towards carbon neutrality,” said the Parti Québécois spokesperson for the environment and MP for Jonquière. , Sylvain Gaudreault.
Liberal Party environment critic Isabelle Melançon said it “doesn’t make sense to use our renewable hydroelectricity to produce non-renewable energy.”
Énergie Saguenay dependent on Gazoduq
Even if GNL Québec were to submit a new version of its Énergie Saguenay project to provincial and federal authorities, nothing indicates that it would have a source of supply. The evaluation of the project to build a gas pipeline between northern Ontario and the Saguenay, called Gazoduq, did not take place. The project, however, remains “active”, indicated to The Press a company spokesperson who declined to be named.
Learn more
-
- 44 million
- Daily quantity, in cubic meters, of natural gas that the complex would have liquefied
SOURCE: LNG QUEBEC