Canada in talks with Europe about east coast energy exports

(Reuters) - Canada is in talks with its European allies, including Spain and Germany, about exporting oil and gas from its east coast to alleviate energy constraints and provide an alternative to Europe's Russian energy imports, Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said on Wednesday.

"It is important for Canada to be able to step up and to help our European friends that are dealing with very difficult energy realities," Joly told reporters.

"We need to do it in a way that we're also dealing with the climate change issue. And this is exactly the conversations we're having, particularly with the Germans and also with the Spanish," she said.

Germany has been rushing to phase out Russian energy imports after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and is looking for alternative supply routes and sources of energy.

Canada and Germany are in talks over options to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe via a terminal on Canada's east coast, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing a German government official.

Discussions between German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took place at the summit held by The Group of Seven economic powers leaders this week.

Canada, the world's sixth-largest natural gas producer, does not currently have any east coast LNG facilities.

Canadian Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson told Reuters in May that Ottawa was looking at speeding up two proposed east coast LNG export projects - Spanish company Repsol's LNG facility in New Brunswick and the Goldboro LNG facility in Nova Scotia proposed by Pieridae Energy .

(Reporting by Ismail Shakil and Steve Scherer in Ottawa; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Alistair Bell)

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