Saint John LNG Terminal

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Saint John LNG Terminal, also known as Repsol LNG Terminal and formerly known as Canaport LNG Terminal, is an LNG terminal in New Brunswick, Canada.

Location

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Project Details

Import Facility

• Owner: Repsol (100%)
• Location: Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
• Coordinates: 45.2114, -65.978 (exact)
• Capacity: 7.5 mtpa
• Cost: 756 million USD
• Status: Operating
• Type: Import
• Start Year: 2009

Export Facility

• Owner: Repsol (100%)
• Location: Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
• Coordinates: 45.2114, -65.978 (exact)
• Capacity:
• Cost:
• Status: Cancelled
• Type: Export
• Start Year:

Note: mtpa = million tonnes per year; bcfd = billion cubic feet per day

Background

Saint John LNG Terminal, formerly known as Canaport LNG Terminal, is an LNG terminal in New Brunswick, Canada.

The Saint John LNG terminal is a liquified natural gas (LNG) receiving and regasification terminal located adjacent and immediately east of the Canaport crude receiving terminal. Commissioned in 2008, it is Canada's first LNG terminal and the first LNG terminal built in eastern North America in 30 years. It is capable of receiving the largest LNG tankers in the world.

Saint John LNG has a nominal capacity of handling 1,200,000,000 cu ft (34,000,000 m3) of LNG per day, enough to heat 5 million homes. Regasified LNG from the Saint John LNG terminal is capable of supplying 20% of the natural gas demand in the northeastern United States and Canada.

In 2001 Irving Oil applied for a permit to add liquified natural gas (LNG) to its Canaport deep-water crude receiving terminal. The permit was granted in April 2004 and Irving Oil entered into a partnership with Repsol S.A. to develop what is now called Saint John LNG; Irving Oil owns 25% of Saint John LNG while Repsol S.A. owns 75%. Construction of the LNG terminal started in September 2005 and the facility was commissioned in 2008 and received its first shipment of LNG in June 2009.

Saint John LNG consists of the following infrastructure:

• A pier, consisting of a terminal jetty constructed from 16 marine support jackets, 12 roadway and pipe support trestle sections, an LNG receiving platform, 10 mooring hooks, four berthing fenders, an access gangway and eight catwalk structures. Total structural steel weight is 7,500 t (8,300 short tons). Approximately 2,000 m3 (71,000 cu ft) of concrete form the road and platform deck.
• Three (3) insulated storage tanks on shore.
• A regasification facility using submerged combustion vaporizers to convert LNG into natural gas by warming it.

The construction of the Saint John LNG was coincident with construction of the Brunswick Pipeline which transports the natural gas from Saint John LNG to markets.

Cancelled export plans

There had been plans to convert the import LNG terminal into an export terminal, but in 2016 Repsol announced that the plans had been cancelled due to lack of investors.

In June 2022, Canada's environment minister Steven Guilbeault said that the country's east coast likely only had enough gas supplies for one new LNG export terminal, and that a proposal from Repsol to convert the Saint John terminal to an export facility would boost LNG supplies to Europe the fastest. To do so would still take "some years," according to Guilbeault.

As of August 2022, Repsol was in talks with the Canadian government regarding adding liquefaction units to the facility.

In March 2023, Repsol announced that it had scrapped plans for a liquefaction facility because it would be too expensive to transport gas to the terminal.