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Oil and Gas Sector-Politics and Image

So much for ‘drill, baby, drill’? – by Matt Egan (CNN.com – May 12, 2025)

https://www.cnn.com/

America’s oil industry is facing immense pressure during Trump 2.0. Even though President Donald Trump vowed to usher in a period of American energy dominance, the administration’s trade war and OPEC’s production hikes have cast a shadow over the oil patch.

In fact, once-gangbusters US oil production growth is now at risk of grinding to a halt — or even going in reverse. Hurt by weakening demand and depressed prices, US oil output is now expected to shrink in 2026, S&P Global Commodity Insights projected on Monday. S&P estimates that US oil production will dip to 13.3 million barrels per day in 2026, a 130,000-barrel decline from its 2025 forecast.

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OPINION: Donald Trump’s Ukraine minerals deals looks to be more about oil and gas than rare earths – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – May 3, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

On the morning of Pope Francis’s April 26 funeral, U.S. President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, sat alone on two red chairs, facing one another, in the largely empty St. Peter’s Basilica. At the time, the topic of the impromptu mini-summit amid the baroque opulence of the Vatican was not known.

Less than a week later, all became clear. The two leaders were wrapping up the fraught Ukraine-U.S. minerals deal, discussions of which had sometimes been ill-tempered and explosive since Mr. Trump’s election campaign in the fall. On Thursday, in his evening address from Kyiv, Mr. Zelensky said, “In fact, now we have the first result of the Vatican meeting, which makes it truly historic.”

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Opinion: Oil and gas, not cars, still pay Canada’s bills, and critical metals are soon to follow – by Patricia Mohr (Financial Post – May 2, 2025)

https://financialpost.com/

Energy exports are almost two and a half times the value of exported cars, and critical minerals are coming on fast

Times haven’t changed as much as many people seem to think. Canada’s vast resource potential still generates both big economic opportunities and important diplomatic leverage in our relations with the United States and others. With our small domestic consumer market, we still owe much of our prosperity and influence to the export of commodities and resource-based manufactures.

Despite recent rhetoric, Canada has long been and still is an “energy super-power.” We are the world’s fourth-largest producer of crude oil and a trusted member of the West’s nuclear-fuel supplier group. With effective resource management and huge potential in liquefied natural gas (LNG), our global role in energy will only expand in coming years.

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Kitimat has seen it all – by Nancy Macdonald (Globe and Mail – April 25, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

In this northern B.C. port town, voters used to booms and busts are now caught between both at once

Kitimat’s construction boom is tapering off. The Help Wanted signs that used to decorate businesses are coming down. And hotel rooms in the northern B.C. port city are no longer packed with construction workers, as the process of building a new, $18-billion gas terminal winds down at the harbour.

But judging by the abundance of $80,000 pickup trucks, the local economy is still going gangbusters. Residents here have learned to be cautiously optimistic in the face of economic threat, and also restrained in their enthusiasm when things are looking up. Right now, they’re having to do both at the same time.

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TC Energy CEO touts Asia as key to Canada’s economic diversification away from U.S. – by Brent Jang (Globe and Mail – April 10, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The U.S. trade war has posed huge challenges, but Canada should take advantage of the time to diversify its economy toward exports to Asia, including shipments of liquefied natural gas, says TC Energy Corp.’s chief executive officer.

After the April 28 federal election, it will be important for the prime minister, premiers, business executives and Indigenous leaders to be aligned and strengthen ties with Asia, François Poirier said in a speech to Canadian Club Toronto that was webcast on Thursday.

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Prime Minister Mark Carney vows to speed permits, make Canada energy superpower – by Laura Dhillon Kane and Thomas Seal (Bloomberg News – April 9, 2025)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Prime Minister Mark Carney pledged to make Canada the world’s “leading energy superpower” through a plan that includes establishing a single office that would decide on major projects within two years.

The Liberal Party leader said at a campaign stop in Calgary that his government would create a Major Federal Project Office with a “one project, one review” mandate. The aim would be to eliminate duplication of federal and provincial environmental assessments, speeding up reviews.

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Meet the Albertan Separatists Who Want to Be American – by Rupa Subramanya (The Free Press – April 7, 2025)

https://www.thefp.com/

A growing band of Canadians say their most oil-rich province should join forces with the U.S. ‘Political disruption is what this country needs.’

Jeff Rath, a Canadian constitutional lawyer, rancher, and racehorse breeder who lives outside Calgary, wants his home province of Alberta to become independent and join the United States. The 60-year-old said he will soon lead a delegation of like-minded Albertans to Washington, D.C., for meetings with senior figures in the Trump administration.

He calls it a “fact-finding” mission to gauge whether Washington sees value in welcoming the resource-rich, right-leaning province into the fold. Although no date for the visit has been set and the White House did not return a request for comment about whether a meeting would take place, Rath told me he is certain he could make the case.

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It’s time for Canadians to challenge the American domination of the LNG space – by Susan McArthur(Financial Post – March 19, 2025)

https://financialpost.com/

Canada is now among the top 10 countries with natural gas reserves. It’s time to take advantage of that

Canadians are starting to understand the Americans ate our breakfast, lunch and dinner when it comes to selling liquefied natural gas (LNG) on the global market while simultaneously undermining our national security.

They are finally waking up to the importance of the urgent request by oil and gas CEOs to all federal party leaders calling for the removal of legislation and regulation impeding and capping the development of our resources.

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[ Andrew Forrest] A Mining Billionaire’s Case for Ditching Fossil Fuels – by Justin Worland (Time Magazine – February 25, 2025)

https://time.com/

It does not take long at lunch with Andrew Forrest for him to start seeming less like an Australian mining billionaire and more like a climate activist–meets–zealous prosecutor. His rugged features quickly appear not to reflect the arid expanse of Western Australia’s Pilbara region, home to the core operations of his $38 billion Fortescue iron-ore business.

Rather, they appear the result of a succession of high-stakes court battles. When we meet at a luxurious Paris brasserie, he speaks passionately about a client that he’s been representing for several years: the planet. His case? Corporate bosses must act now—and act fast—to tackle climate change, an argument he delivers with force and the unrivaled credibility that comes from decades in the carbon-spewing industry.

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Now is the time to unleash Canada’s enormous resource potential – by Eric Nuttall (Financial Post – February 6, 2025)

https://financialpost.com/

New pipelines are our ‘trump card,’ and, if given the necessary urgency, they could be built in a matter of years, not decades

There are countries who have successfully leveraged their resource wealth to enrich their citizens, and then there is Canada. Years of policies rooted in energy ignorance and centred around self-flagellation have made us poorer and vulnerable.

From cancelling new pipelines that would have diversified our customer base and shrunk our price discount, to abjectly denying the business case in coal-replacing LNG, we have chosen the path of servitude again and again. As bearer of the third largest oil reserves in the world, it didn’t have to be this way.

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Trump is firing up resource nationalism. But can Canada’s energy and mining sectors pivot away from the U.S.? – by Niall McGee, Emma Graney, Nicolas Van Praet and Brent Jang (Globe and Mail – February 6, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The threat of U.S. tariffs is firing up a brand of Canadian resource nationalism not seen in decades, inspiring a rallying call for this country to build more of its own energy, power and mining infrastructure. But executing on that plan will be no easy feat.

U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this week backed off from immediately imposing tariffs on Canadian imports, but the risk remains high that he’ll follow through after a 30-day reprieve runs out. Amid this threat, Canada’s resource sector, most of which would be subject to a 10-per-cent tariff, is looking at diversifying away from the United States to insulate itself from more shocks that lie ahead.

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Eby’s new love for energy, mining doesn’t excuse past abuse of the sector – by Adam Pankratz (National Post – February 3, 2025)

https://nationalpost.com/

The B.C. government is looking to fast-track 10 major projects. Great, but where was this growth-friendly attitude five years ago?

One heartening development in President Donald Trump’s trade war with Canada is that the post-national identity peddled by our prime minister and his followers has been replaced with a hefty dose of red-blooded patriotism.

However, while this is a time to come together, it most definitely is not a time to let the people who led us into this precarious position off scot-free — people such as British Columbia Premier David Eby.

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Trump tariffs include 10% carve-out for Canadian gas, power, minerals – by Killian Staines, Daniel Weeks, Kip Keen, Zack Hale, and J Robinson (S&P Global – February 2, 2025)

https://www.spglobal.com/

US President Donald Trump on Feb. 1 followed through on a threat to hit the nation’s three largest trading partners with steep tariffs. Energy imports from Canada — including oil, natural gas, electricity, coal, uranium, and critical minerals — were singled out, however, to be taxed at a lower rate of 10%.

Outside of the energy exclusions, Trump’s executive orders imposed 25% across-the-board tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico and a 10% tariff on imports from China. No energy-related exemptions were identified for Mexico or China. The new tariffs will take effect on Feb. 4.

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Canada should step up to help make America energy secure – by Diane Francis (Financial Post – January 22, 2025)

https://financialpost.com/

Two countries should work together to develop oil and natural gas assets as well as nuclear, hydroelectric and renewable energy

Donald Trump postponed his threatened 25 per cent tariff against Canada and other trading partners on inauguration day because of inflation fears. His scheme is designed to pay for deep tax cuts for Americans and their businesses but tariffs are always inflationary for consumers.

In 1971, President Richard Nixon discovered this after imposing a 10 per cent “import duty” on goods. It was scrapped just months later. “Imagine an American corn farmer having to pay 25 per cent more for his potash, or for fuel,” commented Gary Marr on CTV. He’s the CEO of the Canada West Foundation, a businessman, and a former politician. “That’s not what he signed up for.”

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Cutting off oil is Canada’s nuclear option. What would it mean if it happens? – by Evan Dyer (CBC News Politics – January 19, 2025)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/

Crude oil tariffs in response to Trump’s threats would cause pain on both sides

In Canada’s arsenal of possible responses to a Trump tariff, the nuclear option is the threat to withhold, reduce or place export tariffs on Canadian energy. Already, the mere suggestion of such a tactic has caused a split between the government of Alberta, on one side, and the governments of Canada and all other provinces on the other.

Tariffs on imports from the U.S. have the potential to cause pain to certain industries and regions, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau himself has acknowledged that the effect of Canada’s import tariffs would be diluted by the size of the U.S. population and economy.

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