Taiwan is eager to buy liquefied natural gas from Canada when the opportunity becomes available as part of the island’s effort to diversify supply, a senior government official says
Chern-Chyi Chen, deputy minister of economic affairs in Taiwan, said CPC Corporation, the state-owned petroleum company, is in close touch with backers of LNG projects being assembled on Canada’s West Coast. He said Taiwan is open to investing in Canadian LNG projects if the business models make sense and it is required.
“It might be something like now you need to invest in order to get the supply,” the deputy minister said in an interview in Taipei on Thursday. “In that case, of course, we will be interested in investing for a guarantee of the supply.”
Taiwan has growing power needs as the heart of the world’s semiconductor industry. The Asian democracy produces more than 60 per cent of the world’s semiconductor chips and more than 90 per cent of the most advanced varieties, found at the heart of modern technology from smartphones to cars to medical devices.
Demand for semiconductor chips to fuel the artificial intelligence boom is using increasing amounts of power on the island of 24 million. Taiwan had planned to phase out nuclear power, but the government recently signalled it’s open to keeping it part of the energy mix.
Mr. Chen said Taiwan wants to generate 50 per cent of its electricity from natural gas, up from 40 per cent today. It imports almost all of its natural gas right now. He said Taiwan currently buys LNG from Qatar, Australia and the United States, among others.
“CPC Corporation will continue to search for opportunities with producers in British Columbia,” he said.
PetroChina, the Chinese state-controlled petroleum company, owns a 15-per-cent stake in the LNG Canada project in Kitimat, B.C., which plans to start exporting natural gas to Asian markets by mid-2025.
Relations between Taiwan and China have grown increasingly strained as Beijing has stepped up its menacing of the self-governing island.
China’s Communist Party considers Taiwan a breakaway province despite the fact it has never ruled the island, where defeated Nationalist forces retreated after losing the Chinese civil war more than 70 years ago. China has sought to annex the island and has not ruled out using force. It has staged military exercises near Taiwan more than 10 times since 2018.
Taiwan’s Economic Affairs Ministry has said it plans to build four additional terminals to receive LNG exports, bringing its total capacity to six terminals. It’s also seeking to build a stockpile of natural gas that can hold 24 days’ worth of supply by 2027.
In December, 2023, Canada and Taiwan signed an investment pact that upgrades relations by granting legal protection to business investors in each other’s jurisdiction. The Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA) offers assurances that a Taiwanese or Canadian investment will not be compromised or appropriated without due process and compensation.
Mr. Chen said this investment pact was “very much” what prompted a visit to Canada in June from the Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association (TEEMA), one of the island’s largest industry trade groups. Its output equals about 25 per cent of Taiwan’s annual gross domestic product.
He said Taiwanese companies are interested in making investments in Canada to be closer to their largest market: the United States.
Last November, Taiwanese company E-One Moli Energy Corp. staked a major position in Canada’s growing electric-battery supply chain with a $1-billion facility to be built in Maple Ridge, B.C., to make lithium-ion cells.