Oil and Gas Sector-Politics and Image

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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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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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https://nationalpost.com/

The Liberals were told to respect provincial jurisdiction, but their update to the federal environmental assessment regime doesn’t

On Thursday, the Alberta government announced that it has asked the Alberta Court of Appeal to provide an opinion on whether the newly amended federal Impact Assessment Act (IAA) is constitutional. The problem? The things that rendered much of the act unconstitutional, which had been pointed out by the Supreme Court last fall, were never addressed.

The flaw that tainted IAA 1.0 was one of jurisdictional blindness: the law didn’t keep the feds in their own lane, and instead gave Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault the ability to veto just about any infrastructure project he likes — even in-province pipelines and roads, as well as gravel pits and mines, which are all within provincial domain.

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https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

President-elect Donald Trump nominated Chris Wright, who runs a Colorado-based oil and natural gas fracking services company, to lead the Energy Department.

Wright, the chief executive officer of Liberty Energy Inc., has no previous Washington experience. He’s made a name for himself as a vocal proponent of oil and gas, saying fossil fuels are crucial for spreading prosperity and lifting people from poverty. The threat of global warming, he has said, is exaggerated.

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https://nationalpost.com/

The existing plan he’s undermining would cut emissions by seven times what the environment minister is proposing

Steven Guilbeault has made clear that he plans to go out with bang, championing a record unsullied by compromise, pragmatism or achievement. The activist environment minister released the draft regulations for a cap on oil and gas emissions on Monday, under the cover of blanket U.S. election reporting.

The minister’s rationale is that regulation is needed because profits in the sector have soared. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Guilbeault has a “deranged vendetta against Alberta” and promised to fight the cap in court.

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CALGARY — Investments in oil and gas production are important and must continue in tandem with increased investment in renewable and clean technologies, the deputy head of the International Energy Agency said Tuesday. Mary Burce Warlick made the comments in Calgary, the corporate heart of Canada’s oil and gas sector, just a week after the Paris-based IEA released its most recent forecast for global energy demand.

The IEA said in that forecast that demand for all three fossil fuels — coal, oil and gas — is set to peak by the end of this decade. It also predicted a potential oversupply of both oil and liquefied natural gas in the second half of the 2020s.

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https://calgaryherald.com/

Almost three-quarters of Canadians consider oil and gas to be important to the country’s economy today

Despite a polarized energy debate and a torrent of criticism toward the oil and gas sector, Canadians’ opinion about the industry’s importance isn’t eroding like a sandcastle facing shifting tides. In fact, it’s growing stronger.

During a keynote address to open the Global Energy Show in Calgary on Tuesday, well-known pollster Nik Nanos says the data is clear: more Canadians are supporting the industry, as “meat and potato” issues such as affordability, jobs and inflation hit home.

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https://financialpost.com/

The economic benefits from building facilities and exporting gas at a premium price are substantial and it helps to reduce coal use in Asia

After years of planning and construction, the first major liquified natural gas (LNG) project in British Columbia — LNG Canada’s export terminal in Kitimat — is about to be completed. The $18-billion investment is supplied by a pipeline from northeastern B.C.

The terminal’s imminent completion is already stoking interest in other LNG projects, including the Cedar LNG project also at Kitimat (a joint venture of the Haisla Nation and Pembina Pipeline Corp.), the Woodfibre LNG terminal near Squamish, Ksi Lisims LNG on Pearse Island, a floating export facility, as well as a possible Phase 2 of the LNG Canada project.

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https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Russia’s fortress economy has proved remarkably resilient to an onslaught of Western sanctions. Two years after the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, it continues to fund a costly war and to prop up President Vladimir Putin. But there’s at least one spot where the pain is very real.

The Novatek PJSC-led Arctic LNG 2 facility, on the icy Kara Sea, is a key part of Moscow’s plans to boost exports and replenish coffers. For months now, it has been ready to ship liquefied natural gas to new markets, alternatives to the once-lucrative European pipeline trade.

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https://nationalpost.com/

It is the kind of project that Canada no longer seems to be able to build

The completion of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion (TMX) was not commemorated by an iconic photograph, such as the one taken one a wet November morning in 1885 in the mountains of British Columbia. What Pierre Berton, in his epic story of the building of the country’s first transcontinental railway, billed as The Great Canadian Photograph has a sense of occasion, as a white bearded old gentleman, Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) director Donald Smith, hammers home an iron railroad spike: The Last Spike.

“Canada had accomplished the impossible — a job done with a remarkable blend of financial acumen, stubborn perseverance, political lobbying, brilliant organization, reckless gambling, plain good fortune and the toil of a legion of ordinary working men … the unknown soldiers of (CPR general manager William) Van Horne’s army,” Berton wrote.

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https://nationalpost.com/

If this pipeline is so great for the economy, wouldn’t having more pipelines be even better?

After more than a decade of jurisdictional squabbling, political grandstanding, activist obstructionism, legal wrangling and bureaucratic delays, the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion gained final approval earlier this week and began shipping oil on Wednesday.

Despite coming in years behind schedule and nearly $27 billion over budget, the pipeline is being hailed by some Liberals as a triumph of Big Government, with the “golden” or “final” weld on April 11 drawing parallels to the Last Spike driven into John A. Macdonald’s Canadian Pacific Railway on Nov. 7, 1885.

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