Canada has struck an important agreement to export liquefied natural gas to Germany, two senior officials with direct knowledge of the agreement said Tuesday, a breakthrough for both nations.
The deal is scheduled to be signed at the Canadian embassy in Berlin on Wednesday, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the matter before the public announcement.
The details will be announced by Canada’s energy minister, Tim Hodgson, at an event in British Columbia on Wednesday, the officials said.
Under the agreement, Canada will commit to exporting up to one million metric tons of liquefied natural gas a year from a terminal on its Pacific Coast in British Columbia to Germany, starting in the early 2030s, for a two-decade horizon.
The deal had long been in the works as Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada has been looking for new markets for Canada’s important energy resources, and the German government has been seeking new sources of energy supplies.
Mr. Carney had suggested this agreement was in the works during an August visit to Berlin.
The German economy, a voracious energy consumer, has had to seek new suppliers since cutting itself off from Russia after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and is now hurting further because of the disruption caused by the conflict in the Middle East.
Publicly and privately, German officials have said they need to find a diverse set of suppliers for imported gas, to avoid overreliance on a single country, like the United States. “It makes us more competitive and more secure on the world stage,” Friedrich Merz, the chancellor, said this winter before traveling to the Persian Gulf, partly in search of oil and gas supply agreements.
Canada, an oil and gas powerhouse, exports an overwhelming majority of its resources to the United States.
The agreement is an important win for Mr. Carney, who has spent his first year as prime minister trying to line up buyers for Canadian goods that will help the country break its deep dependence on the United States.
The task has become urgent as relations between the allies and neighbors have deteriorated since the election of President Trump, who has imposed tariffs on Canada and threatened further economic pain. Mr. Carney has set a goal of doubling Canadian exports to non-U.S. markets by 2035.
Canada’s first liquefied natural gas export port, Shell-backed LNG Canada, only began operating about a year ago.
The Ksi Lisims LNG project, which is set to be used for the Germany exports, has been approved for operation by the government but not yet fully financed. Its proposed daily capacity would make it the second largest of the eight Canadian L.N.G. projects that have been proposed or are now under construction.
The main competitor for Canadian liquefied gas are terminals in the United States on the Gulf of Mexico. While gas from Canada’s current and proposed projects is likely to be more expensive, it offers shorter sailing times to Asia and avoids the Panama Canal, eliminating one potential disruption to supply.
Some details of the agreement were reported Tuesday by Bloomberg News.
Jim Tankersley contributed reporting from Berlin.
Matina Stevis-Gridneff is the Canada bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of the country.
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