Canada has a “golden opportunity” to become a major global oil player as the war in the Middle East limits sources of crude and natural gas, the head of the International Energy Agency said, adding that “The cost of missing this train will be incredible,” as quoted by Bloomberg.
Fatih Birol said the world was losing 14 million barrels in daily supply because of the war, and reliability has gained even more prominence for importers of energy commodities. After the war ends, the IEA’s secretary general said, “there will be an energy security risk premium,” and “the most important resource, or card, that Canada has today is trust.”
“Canada doesn’t have the luxury to be slow,” Birol added. “I wish there were a few more Canadas in the world, so that we can have a much more reliable and sustainable global energy system.”
The head of the International Energy Agency has been a vocal opponent to the global expansion of oil and gas production before the war in the Middle East, arguing that the only sustainable path forward for the world was to give up oil and gas in favor of alternative energy sources such as wind and solar.
Canada has among the most abundant oil and gas resources in the world, but has been constrained in exports, with almost all of what it has to sell abroad going to the United States. In recent years, the energy industry has pushed for a more global reach, and the federal government has recently seen the point in that.
Canada has one LNG export facility targeting Asian markets, and now there is pressure from the industry to build more oil pipelines so it can also start shipping it directly to overseas markets rather than pumping it to the U.S. and exporting it from the Gulf Coast.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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