Report - Agence canadienne d'évaluation environnementale

Chapter 2 Project energy context
The proposed project fits into an energy context which warrants analysis at the world
and continental scales, and also on the level of Ontario and Quebec, given that they
represent the project’s targeted market. Such an analysis would not be complete
without also dealing with the project utility from the standpoint of diversification of
natural gas supply sources and the relationship between this diversification and the
security of supply for the project’s markets.
World context
Natural gas consumption
The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that 70 percent of demand between
2003 and 2030 will come from countries not belonging to the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). According to Hughes of the
Geologic Survey of Canada, natural gas is the third largest energy source in the world
following oil and coal, and it accounted for 23 percent of primary energy needs for
2005 1 . Specialists of the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) of the United
Sates Department of Energy 2 recall that world natural gas consumption in 2001 was
2.57 Tm 3 and that it is predicted to reach 5 Tm 3 by the year 2025.
World NG reserves
According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the United Sates
Department of Energy, confirmed natural gas reserves on the world scale were of the
order of 173 m 3 in 2006 3 , with the leading 20 countries in terms of size of reserves,
which include Canada and the United States, accounting for 90.2 percent of the
reserves.
1. J.D. Hughes, Natural Gas in North America: Should We be Worried?, World Oil Conference, ASPO – USA,
Boston, Massachusetts, 26 October 2006, 28 pages [On-line: www.aspousa.com/fall2006/presentations/pdf/Hughes_D_NatGas_Boston_2006.pdf].
2. Obenschin and Sheffield, op. cit.
3. EIA, International Energy Outlook 2006 [On-line (12 February 2007): www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/ieo/nat_gas.html].
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