A tanker carrying Canada’s first major shipment of liquefied natural gas has arrived at a South Korean port, ushering in a new era for Canadian energy exports that some had feared would never come, as the country’s natural gas reaches new buyers in premium Asian-Pacific markets. A vessel called the GasLog Glasgow delivered the historic shipment from LNG Canada ‘s terminal in Kitimat, B.C. The analytics firm MarineTraffic shows the Shell PLC -chartered tanker arrived at a major import terminal and storage base in Tongyeong, South Korea shortly after 10 a.m. local time on July 17. Though it is the world’s fifth-largest producer of natural gas − with a significantly shorter sailing time to Asian markets compared to competitors on the United States Gulf coast — Canada is a late entry to global LNG markets, nearly a decade after the U.S. and around three decades after Australia and Qatar. Until this week, proponents of the sector had lamented that all of Canada’s natural gas exports, averaging around 8.6 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2024, are delivered via pipeline to the U.S. But that is now set to change as LNG Canada continues its ramp-up. Two other tankers have left LNG Canada’s terminal and remain in transit, heading to ports in Japan and South Korea. In total, the B.C. terminal has shipped 11 billion cubic feet of natural gas since the facility was commissioned, RBC Capital Markets reported in a research note published Wednesday. The bank based its estimate on the total capacities of the three vessels that have departed from Kitimat so far. The Trudeau legislation Canada's oilpatch hates — and what Carney is doing about itCanadian natural gas prices could climb 60% this year as LNG exports ramp up, Deloitte predicts A fourth vessel — Petro-China-chartered tanker called WuDang — is in the port of Kitimat awaiting loading, RBC said. And three more vessels are expected to arrive to load shipments in the coming weeks. • Email: mpotkins@postmedia.com