Trudeau’s Energy Chief Sees Canada’s ‘Limited’ Scope to Help U.S., Europe – Focuses on Climate & Emissions

Canada is the world’s fourth-largest oil producer, with output of more than 5 million barrels a day of liquid hydrocarbons, and is the biggest foreign crude supplier to the U.S. But it has limited pipeline capacity running south and only one crude pipeline to its coastline — the Trans Mountain line to British Columbia, which is currently being expanded.

Speaking Tuesday on the sidelines of the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston, Wilkinson said Canada is more likely to be able to help other nations with their longer-term energy strategies than make a difference to prices in the coming months.

“We are very open to looking at how we can help our friends and allies, that certainly includes the United States and it includes Europe,” he said. “And some of the answers may well be in the short term, whether there’s a way for example to increase production. But some of it is longer-term planning around what is going to be required in the future in terms of energy — whether that’s liquid natural gas or hydrogen.”

A consortium of energy companies that includes Shell Plc and Malaysia’s Petronas is building a huge LNG facility on Canada’s west coast, but it won’t be ready until the middle of the decade.

Wilkinson’s comments echo those of Environment Minister Stephen Guilbeault, who told Bloomberg News last week there’s little Canada can do right now to increase supplies of oil and gas to Europe because it doesn’t have the necessary pipeline infrastructure to its coasts.

Wilkinson also said Canada needs to balance Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s climate change goals with boosting fossil fuel exports to help democratic partners around the world facing a loss in Russian supplies.

“We have to respond to the energy security challenges, there’s no question about that,” Wilkinson said. “But we have to do that in the frame that climate change has not gone away. It is still an existential threat. We still need to be making progress on our emissions.”