Hot weather and cold winters are key drivers of demand for natural gas from Canaport LNG, and the recent winter months and the previous summer months provided plenty of both for the liquefied natural-gas receiving and regasification terminal located in Saint John, N.B.

After a strong first quarter in 2021, Canaport general manager Courtney Jones says the focus for this summer will be to capture peaking opportunities in the U.S. northeast.

“Looking at the forward curve, LNG is currently priced higher than delivered natural gas to the northeast. So that arbitrage opportunity that we saw, not only last summer but in the past winter as well, is not there now,” she says. “We will continue to take advantage of peaking opportunities, so we certainly hope the summer brings on hot weather and people are running their air conditioning.”

Canaport LNG imports gas in liquid form. It’s then regasified and marketed via pipeline through Repsol S.A., a parent company to Canaport LNG.

“We had a very strong first quarter,” Jones said, referring to the months from December to March.

Jones says that in the foreseeable future, natural gas will continue to play a very big role in the conversion to environmentally friendly energy sources.

Canaport LNG is a limited partnership owned by Repsol SA and Irving Oil. It continues to work with our parent companies to both optimize our current business and evaluate future opportunities.