Canadian oil helps keep the United States economy humming and natural gas helps keep American homes warm
By Mark Milke and Lennie Kaplan Canadian Energy Centre In a world where Russian President Vladimir Putin is widely assumed to be behind the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, liberal democracies should stick together. This should be especially relevant on matters related to energy. Russia has been using energy exports as a weapon for…
With the Brent crude oil price touching $65 last week, markets have entered the hot zone. Inclement weather, the resultant rising demand for heating, a dip in United States output and the unilateral Saudi output cut all helped to tighten the markets, contributing to the bull run. Parts of the U.S. have been in a…
2021 perfect opportunity for the feds to demonstrate its commitment to a sector critical to the Canadian prosperity
If only the federal government would put its full force behind the energy sector, as it does other critical sectors in the economy. In early October, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced he wouldn’t back down from the latest American round of attacks on Canada’s softwood lumber industry. Then, the federal government announced it would pursue…
By every measure, Canada is a beacon of civil, political and economic rights
By Mark Milke and Lennie Kaplan Canadian Energy Centre Over the past two years, three insurance companies from Europe – Axa, Zurich and Swiss Re – announced plans to stop insuring Canadian oil sands projects, and reduce or entirely eliminate investments in the oil and gas sector. The reason offered is the standard refrain: assumed…
Some observers see prices moving even higher as refiners increase processing rates to meet rising product demand
Oil extended its longest winning streak in two years last week. Crude oil prices climbed more than nine per cent, as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies in OPEC+ curbed supplies, depleting global oil inventories. A United States government report also indicated that U.S. domestic oil stockpiles have fallen by 6.6 million…
More than 70 years of Alberta prosperity could be in jeopardy. And the continued fixation and dependence on fossil fuels could bring disaster
Lack of diversification is a risky invitation to investment disaster. Very few institutional, corporate or individual investors would put their total net worth into one sector. Yet that’s just what Alberta, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Saskatchewan have done. The economies of these provinces are heavily dependent on the fortunes of the petroleum industry. Corporate and…
A vocal minority opposed to resource development damaging our prosperity
By Mark Milke and Lennie Kaplan Canadian Energy Centre Oil and natural gas pipelines are like light switches on the wall. You take them for granted, along with the expectation that once flipped, your lights will come on. In normal company and normal times, few people would discuss over dinner something as arcane as tubes…
Environmentalists only support Indigenous peoples when the First Nations and Métis agree with them
Much as opponents of Canadian oil and gas production hate to admit it, the future of the industry appears to be set. Construction on the Coastal GasLink pipeline to Kitimat, B.C., continues. Work on the Trans Mountain pipeline is well advanced. The Canadian portion of Enbridge’s Line 3 is essentially finished. Protests killed the Northern…
Crude oil markets firmed up in the last week to levels not seen in almost a year. Does that indicate a real change in direction or is it just a passing phase? In sharp contrast to its January meeting, the virtual ministerial meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies in OPEC+…
The Arctic, and all its alluring possibilities, is not part of the future as the energy and investment industries see it unfolding
Toronto-Dominion Bank announced recently it won’t loan money toward any oil and gas or related development in the Arctic. While this may elicit joy from the woke anti-fossil-fuel global warmists, this was in reality a very easy decision for TD. So too will it be for others like investment banks, institutional investors, and financial entities…
U.S. President Joe Biden’s torpedoing of the Keystone XL pipeline elicited a scathing response from several Canadian premiers. Canada frequently made the pipeline’s case through diplomatic and political circles in the months following Biden’s statement last May that: “I’ve been against Keystone from the beginning. It is tarsands that we don’t need.” Is retaliation against…
The sheer scale of investment in the natural gas industry in Australia has yielded substantial economic benefits
By Mark Milke and Lennie Kaplan Canadian Energy Centre When U.S. President Joe Biden recently revoked the presidential permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, it was a reminder of how anti-oil-and-gas activism and politics over the years can kill Canadian (and American) jobs. It was also a reminder of how dependent Canada is on one…
Uncertainty is ruling the energy world. “Crude producers continue to grapple with huge uncertainty about where this goes from here,” Tim Gould, the International Energy Agency (IEA) head of energy supply outlooks and investment, told the press last week. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agrees. “Uncertainties remain high going forward with the main…
With the COVID-19 recession and the expansion of Chinese influence, it’s urgent that Canada take the initiative and position itself in new markets
In November, China and 14 Asia-Pacific countries including Japan and South Korea signed a free-trade deal covering 2.2 billion people and nearly 30 per cent of international trade. This Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership shows that the Pacific region continues to reinforce its place as the world’s leading trade hub. Canada and, more precisely, the Prairie…
It is a mistake to think Canada can thrive without the export wealth generated by the energy sector
By Mark Milke and Lennie Kaplan Canadian Energy Centre You may have heard the persistent worldwide narrative that oil and natural gas are dead, or soon will be, and can easily be replaced with other forms of energy. The latter claim is simply false. Read the work of energy transition expert Vaclav Smil, professor of…