Canadian energy firm assessing export facility at Port of Churchill

The push for an LNG export terminal on Hudson Bay is gaining momentum with Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew indicating that one of Canada’s largest energy firms is considering a facility at the Port of Churchill, the Canadian Press reported on January 28.

Churchill already has some infrastructure in place, but shipping LNG cargoes would require an expansion of the port. The Canadian government has agreed to allocate resources to study the potential of the project with the use of specialized icebreaker tankers and ice tugboats.

Manitoba has drawn much attention recently as efforts for Canada to diversify its energy trading partners gain steam. Over the past year, Kinew has extended much energy into making the case for an export facility in northern Manitoba on Hudson Bay.

As Canada emerges as a bigger LNG player, the country is keen to ship the super-chilled fuel to Europe. Previously almost all of Canada’s exports have gone south of the border to the US, but threats of tariffs by US President Donald Trump have made Canada reconsider its trade relations with its southern neighbour.

While western Canada presents an ideal location for shipping cargoes to trade partners in Asia, such as Japan and South Korea, exporting cargoes to Europe is more complicated, despite the EU’s keen interest in Canadian LNG.

Export terminals have been proposed in eastern Canada in New Brunswick and Newfoundland, but both would require long pipelines across the country.

One solution to eliminate the lengthy pipeline issue would be to ship LNG from northern Manitoba. A saltwater port in Fort Nelson has been proposed, which already has a substantial amount of infrastructure in place to move gas from western Canada to northern Manitoba.

EU Ambassador to Canada Genevieve Tuts along with a team of 18 heads of mission from EU member countries held a meeting with Kinew in April 2025 to discuss the option, which could ship cargoes year-round with icebreaker vessels since it is a saltwater port.