Steven Dyer
CTVNewsEdmonton.ca
Digital Producer
March 15, 2022
As countries look for an alternative to Russian oil in the wake of that country’s invasion of Ukraine, Americans are looking to Canada to provide that oil, according to a new poll.
A week ago, U.S. President Joe Biden ordered a ban on Russian oil imports.
March 15, 2022
As countries look for an alternative to Russian oil in the wake of that country’s invasion of Ukraine, Americans are looking to Canada to provide that oil, according to a new poll.
A week ago, U.S. President Joe Biden ordered a ban on Russian oil imports.
U.S. strikes harder at Putin, banning all Russian oil imports
A Maru Public Opinion poll released Tuesday shows that 64 per cent of respondents want to import more oil from Canada to make up for the ban on Russian oil.
Alberta’s premier said Tuesday the province could currently replace about a third of what the U.S. imports from Russia.
“Right now, we are underutilizing our current pipeline export capacity by about 200,000 barrels a day, so we could ship more,” said Jason Kenney.
“In addition, we believe that pipeline companies could make some technical changes to also increase export capacity by another couple hundred of thousand barrels a day.”
Alberta has the capacity to increase pipeline exports by 10 per cent, according to Kenney. Industry experts believe there is only room to expand exports by about five per cent currently.
“The more we produce, the pipeline system becomes tighter,” said Vijay Muralidharan, the director of consulting at Kalibrate.
“Existing pipelines can expand capacity, if they install pumps… there are of course some regulatory hurdles.”
Muralidharan adds that there is rail infrastructure in place that could be used to ship more oil, but it comes with a cost.
The premier believes that “the economics don’t support” additional shipments by rail currently.
“U.S. refineries are built to take Canadian oil, there’s no hassle of rejection, they’ll take whatever we can send, the price will be right, it’s a win-win situation for the refineries in the Gulf Coast and heavy crude producers in Alberta,” said Muralidharan.
After being elected, Biden revoked the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have shipped oil from Alberta to refineries in Texas.
The Maru poll, which was conducted last week, shows 71 per cent of respondents want to see Biden greenlight that pipeline.
“While that project itself may now be dead because of the presidential veto, I think where there is a will, there is a way,” said Kenney.
“So we'll continue to work with folks in congress to see if there is now or in the future a will to create an additional major pipeline flowing from Alberta to the United States.”
Kenney also pointed to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, which is expected to be completed next year. The project would allow more than 500,000 more barrels of oil to be shipped to global markets from the west coast.
Corporate sanctions, where businesses won’t do business with Russian oil companies, could also cause an increased demand in Canadian oil.
“Especially if those corporate sanctions start to be applied to other jurisdictions where the social and human rights aren’t really the greatest,” said Jeremy McCrae, the managing director of Raymond James Energy Research.
“There’s a lot more focus now on who we are doing business with and if Russia can’t get those critical western supplies, technology or personnel, you could see their production continue to struggle for many years going forward.”
The Maru poll surveyed 1,508 Americans and has an estimated margin of error of 3.1 per cent.
With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Carlyle Fiset
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