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Prime Minister Mark Carney says he’s not worried about the prospect of increased oil production from Venezuela challenging Canada’s energy exports because Canadian oil is cheaper, cleaner and lower-risk.
Carney made the comments at a news conference in Paris on Tuesday after being asked if he was concerned that U.S. President Donald Trump’s play for Venezuelan oil this week increased the need to speed up the construction of another bitumen pipeline from Alberta to the B.C. coast.
“Canadian oil will be competitive because it is low-risk, clearly low-risk, low cost — the marginal costs, there’s been huge progress on getting down the costs, and low carbon, which is what the Pathways project carbon capture will bring,” Carney said.
“That makes Canadian oil competitive for the medium and long term.”
After launching military strikes against Venezuela and arresting Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, Trump said U.S. oil companies would go into the country, fix the oil infrastructure and oversee the industry.
Those comments raised concerns that Venezuelan oil, a heavy crude similar to Canadian heavy bitumen, could displace Canada’s exports to the U.S.
WATCH | Carney reacts to U.S. move against Maduro:
Carney reacts to U.S. move against Maduro, asked about potential impact on Canadian oil sector
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday the removal of Venezuela’s ‘illegitimate, corrupt, repressive’ leader is welcome news that creates the possibility for democratic transition, before noting that he thinks Canada’s ‘low-risk’ oil sector will remain competitive.
Carney dismissed that concern, saying while he welcomed “the prospect of greater prosperity in Venezuela,” Canada has already made moves to increase oil shipments to Asia and diversify its exports beyond the U.S.
“We’ve got a competitive product and we’ve been diversifying our markets and that’s one of the reasons why we signed the comprehensive MOU with Alberta,” he said in Paris, where he is attending a summit to hash out security guarantees for Ukraine.
In November, Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that set out the conditions to develop a new bitumen pipeline to the B.C. coast.
The deal secured Alberta’s commitment to enact a higher industrial carbon levy on emissions and build Pathways Plus, an Alberta-based carbon capture, utilization and storage project, to reduce the emissions from the province’s oilsands.
Oil wealth will help Venezuelans, Carney says
Canada’s oilsands produce nearly five million barrels of oil per day, the vast majority of which is exported to the U.S.
While Venezuela has the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves, the country only produced about 900,000 barrels per day last year, down from the 3.5 million barrels per day it was producing in 1999.
That production decline has largely been attributed to a history of coups, strikes, nationalizations of the industry, high rates of violent crime and the presence of armed groups that make Venezuela a challenging environment compared to Canada.
Additional sanctions that Trump put in place in 2017 and 2019 — during his first term — greatly curtailed Venezuelan oil exports to the U.S., and more recently, Washington imposed a total blockade on the industry that Secretary of State Marc Rubio called a “quarantine on their oil.”
Carney said the removal of Maduro — “an illegitimate, corrupt, repressive government” — would lead to a “not-corrupt Venezuelan economy” that produces more oil, and that will be a good thing for the Venezuelan people and the Western Hemisphere as a whole.
That’s a different view than the one expressed by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in a letter to Carney posted on social media on Tuesday.
He warned that Venezuela’s heavy crude production “could rapidly rebound to historic levels,” putting it in direct competition with Canada for space in American refineries that specialize in heavy crude.
“Every barrel the United States sources from Venezuela could mean one less barrel these refineries would buy from Canada. We therefore need new markets to sell to, and we need them quickly,” Poilievre wrote.
Dismissing the MOU as a bureaucratic game that was little more than a symbolic signing ceremony, Poilievre said he wants the Liberal government to approve a new pipeline to the B.C. coast within 60 days of receiving a proposal from Alberta.
