Oil producers face catastrophe if countries worldwide move to limit global warming by two degrees Celsius
Crude oil demand is weak and the fundamental factors aren’t encouraging. Yet, most major oil-producing countries are moving to boost their output levels in the short run. Why? Saudi Arabia is pursuing plans to develop major offshore expansion projects to add an extra 1.15 million barrels per day (bpd) to its oil capacity by 2024,…
453,000 km worth of tubes provide a plethora of jobs
By Mark Milke and Lennie Kaplan Canadian Energy Centre “Designing hypothetical roadmaps outlining complete elimination of fossil carbon from the global energy supply by 2050 is nothing but an exercise in wishful thinking that ignores fundamental physical realities,” wrote Vaclav Smil a year ago. Smil, a University of Manitoba professor of the environment (emeritus), wants less…
Canada was the only free-country supplier of foreign crude oil to the U.S. between 1993 and 2020
By Mark Milke and Lennie Kaplan Canadian Energy Centre Imagine you’re in Germany and wonder if it’s a good idea to rely so heavily on natural gas imports from Russia, where the governing regime is accused by German politicians of killing journalists and the attempted murder of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. German Chancellor Angela…
Their emergence of nine new strains points to the importance of broader strategies to protect crops in Western Canada
Nine new strains of clubroot – a disease that can kill canola crops – have been discovered in Western Canadian fields. While that’s not good news for producers, the discovery shows how important it is to build a multi-pronged strategy for protecting their crops, not relying solely on canola plants bred to resist the disease,…
To attract the investment required to develop resources, mitigating the risks of policy uncertainly needs to be a top priority
By Jairo Yunis and Elmira Aliakbari The Fraser Institute The COVID recession has hurt Canada’s natural resources sector, with supply disruptions, commodity price declines and greater uncertainty regarding future demand. Not surprisingly, capital investment in the Canadian mining industry has dropped to its lowest level since 2009. Of course, business investment should be a key…
Between 2006 and 2018 the oil and gas sector spent $28.1 billion on environmental protection; ALL other industries combined spent $39.6 billion
By Mark Milke and Ven Venkatachalam Canadian Energy Centre As two people not born in Alberta but who live here now – one of us came from British Columbia and the other from India – we’re constantly amazed at the misinformation about the province and one of Canada’s biggest economic contributors: the oil and gas…
Although the OPEC+ decision resulted in immediate oil price gains, the warning shots on the horizon couldn’t be altogether ignored
Saudi Arabia is leading the pack on crude oil production management. Russia seems to be following. Despite murmurs in the oil market of a possible rift between the two countries on the issue of output, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and their allies in the OPEC+, at their virtual meeting last Thursday, went…
Has led to significantly higher wages, higher investment by industry, more taxes and royalty revenues for governments
By Mark Milke and Lennie Kaplan Canadian Energy Centre We take a lot for granted. Consider the evolution in farming over the centuries. Imagine being a farmer a century or more ago. You likely used animals or your muscle to move a plow to furrow the soil in preparation for planting the seeds. Perhaps you…
Canadian oil helps keep the United States economy humming and natural gas helps keep American homes warm
By Mark Milke and Lennie Kaplan Canadian Energy Centre In a world where Russian President Vladimir Putin is widely assumed to be behind the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, liberal democracies should stick together. This should be especially relevant on matters related to energy. Russia has been using energy exports as a weapon for…
But how long will the bull run last?
With the Brent crude oil price touching $65 last week, markets have entered the hot zone. Inclement weather, the resultant rising demand for heating, a dip in United States output and the unilateral Saudi output cut all helped to tighten the markets, contributing to the bull run. Parts of the U.S. have been in a…