Australia Is Shipping LNG to Canada’s East Coast via 25,000 km Journey: Report

Canadian-produced natural gas doesn’t reach all the way to the East Coast, due to a lack of infrastructure, but Australian gas soon will.

A tanker carrying Australian liquified natural gas (LNG), the Maran Gas Hector, has made a journey of around 25,750 kilometres and will soon reach the Port of Saint John, N.B., Bloomberg News has reported.

This will be the first time Australian LNG makes it to Canada, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Kpler, a global trade analytics firm.

Saint John LNG operates a terminal in New Brunswick which receives LNG and converts it to natural gas for distribution via the Brunswick Pipeline linking to Canadian and U.S. markets. The terminal is fully owned by Spanish multinational energy and petrochemical company Repsol.

The company confirmed to The Epoch Times that it is about to receive a shipment from Australia. Saint John LNG would not comment further on details of the transaction.

The shipment of Australian LNG to Canada points to softening demand for the fuel in Asia, as Australia looks for new buyers for its uncontracted fuel. A cargo was also sent to Turkey, the first since at least 2017, and another went to Chile earlier this year, Bloomberg says.

China is the largest buyer in Asia, but shipments there dropped 11 percent in 2025, with buyers reselling cargoes.

The International Energy Agency said in a late 2025 report forecasting natural gas prices that the coming increased supply of the commodity “is set to profoundly transform the global gas market.” The United States and Qatar have been ramping up production.

Meanwhile, Ottawa has also been touting its potential as an LNG exporter, reporting high interest from trading partners in Europe and Asia.

According to the federal government’s latest Energy Fact Book, Canada has the 10th-largest natural gas reserves in the world and is the fifth-largest producer of natural gas.

Canada’s first LNG export terminal, located on the West Coast, became operational last summer. LNG Canada Phase 1 in Kitimat, B.C., has an export volume of 1.84 billion cubic feet per day.

Ottawa has referred Phase 2 of that project to the Major Projects Office (MPO) for steering. The project is a joint venture involving multinationals from various countries. They have yet to make a final investment decision on Phase 2.

The MPO was created by the government of Prime Minister Mark Carney to speed up the construction of projects deemed to be of national importance.

A second LNG export project in B.C., Ksi Lisims, has also been referred to the MPO.

Carney has described Canada as an “energy superpower” in conventional and renewable energies. While he has expressed support for a new bitumen pipeline to the West Coast, under certain conditions, Carney has not spoken of building new pipelines to connect Alberta to the East Coast.

Editor’s note: the article was updated with a comment from Saint John LNG.