Canada's oilmen spot opening after Biden ban

Canada's energy leaders are seeking to position their industry as a strategic buffer for the United States against the impact of oil prices that have soared as the Ukraine conflict drags on.

With US President Joe Biden on Tuesday acting to ban imports of Russian oil and gas, Canada's oil industry lobby groups and pro-oil politicians have been quick to seek to fill the void. They have called on Canada's government to make a "clear commitment" to support oil and gas development in the country, and promote exports of the commodities.

The country's energy leaders said they could immediately replace as much as half of the volume of current Russian supply and move the oil south of the border by pipeline and rail. And it's possible that the US may look for a steady supply of more oil to reduce prices and replace Russian barrels, the industry figures were reported as saying by CBC News.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has been touting his province's oil and gas industry, and he criticized Biden for canceling the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. The $8 billion project would have carried roughly 800,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta to the US Gulf Coast.

Restarting Keystone is "not the answer", and the US needs to reduce its reliance not only on foreign oil but on "oil in general", White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Feb 27.

Canadian environmentalists, rights advocates and other experts have denounced attempts to expand fossil fuel projects amid the Ukraine conflict, saying the situation should instead hasten a global energy transition to respond to climate concerns, according to the Al Jazeera network.

"We're seeing once again the fossil-fuel lobby seizing upon a crisis with horrific human consequences to promote its destructive agenda and double down on fossil production expansion," Caroline Brouillette, national policy manager at the Climate Action Network Canada, told reporters. "It's been absolutely distressing to see some politicians echo this grotesque spin."

Keith Stewart, a senior energy strategist with Greenpeace Canada, said the price rises driven by the conflict would accelerate the end of the age of oil, and a faster energy transition would be good not just for the climate but for global security.

The cost of fuel across Canada has been skyrocketing as the Ukraine conflict puts greater pressure on an industry that has been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gas prices have reached record levels in recent weeks, rising to about $1.85 a liter at filling stations in the greater Toronto area over the past week.

Experts warned that the spike in fuel costs could be part of a larger inflationary trend that ripples throughout the economy, according to the National Post.

Ellen Goddard, an agricultural economist at the University of Alberta, said: "As oil prices go up and getting products from point A to point B is just going to get more expensive … some of that's going to get passed on to consumers."

Philip Cross, a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, called it a risky situation, as modeling shows that doubling oil and gas prices will affect the prices of items like clothing and food and lead to increased costs for industries such as manufacturing and mining.