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A Hindustan Petroleum station in Bengaluru in October, 2025. India will be the single largest source of global oil demand growth through 2050, the IEA predicts.Priyanshu Singh/Reuters
Gurpreet Lail is the chief executive of Enserva. Kevin Krausert is the CEO of Avatar Innovations.
Just as Canada is finally waking up to a jarring new energy reality, so is India.
Canada is currently confronted with the systemic danger of sending 93 per cent of our largest export to a single market that can unilaterally change the rules. Now, imagine being on the opposite side such an equation, relying on imports for 90 per cent of the energy that powers your economy. For India, this means supply lines running into the volatile heart of Russia and the Middle East, a region now reeling from the outbreak of war in Iran. Monday’s escalation is a brutal reminder that for the world’s largest democracy, energy security is a daily struggle against global instability.
This dependence isn’t optional. Driven by an industrial thirst that is difficult to overstate, India will be the single largest source of global oil demand growth through 2050 as millions move toward basic energy security, the International Energy Agency predicts.
India has built one of the world’s most complex refining infrastructures. Engineering marvels like the Jamnagar complex are specifically calibrated to “crack” heavy, sour crude – the exact molecular profile of Canadian oil sands – into the high-value plastics, chemicals, and fuels required to build modern cities. Far from a sunset industry, our heavy oil is the precise chemical input that India’s multibillion-dollar industrial machine was designed to consume.
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And yet this natural partnership is being held hostage by a lack of export capacity. The instability of traditional energy routes makes the case for a Canadian alternative undeniable. By building a secure bridge to India, we provide the stability necessary to lift millions out of precarious living conditions and help end global energy poverty. We have the supply, the institutional knowledge, and the expertise within our work force to create prosperity for Canadians today and for generations to come.
While Canada and India have experienced diplomatic strain in recent years, economic strategy cannot be frozen by political cycles. India remains the world’s largest democracy and a critical global partner. By failing to build pipeline capacity to our own coasts, we aren’t simply missing a business deal; we are walking away from the opportunity to support a democratic ally seeking a stable foundation for growth. Resetting this relationship through responsible energy trade is not an act of ignoring the past; it is a pragmatic investment in a more secure future that directly addresses the human cost of energy scarcity.
This bridge is about more than just economics; it is the prerequisite for sustainable economic mobility. Energy security is the difference between a regional health system having the reliable power to maintain cold-chain refrigeration for life-saving vaccines or seeing those efforts fail during a blackout. It is the baseline for stable public health, effective public education and the essential transition to a modern, reliable grid.
The economic proof of concept already exists. The completion of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion (TMX) was a vital first step, finally allowing Canadian energy to reach global markets in significant volumes. In its first full year of operation, TMX nearly tripled West Coast export capacity and narrowed the “single-customer” discount that long cost Canada billions. That translated into an estimated $13.6-billion in additional revenue in just one year, including roughly $2-billion in new federal tax revenue supporting schools, hospitals, and communities across the country.
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But one pipeline is not going to make us an energy superpower. If Canada is serious about diversifying our trading partners and ending global energy poverty, we must build additional, modern capacity designed for the 21st century. The strategic necessity goes further. As our most productive sector and largest investor in clean technology, the oil and gas industry is the engine of Canadian innovation. A second pipeline to the Pacific would provide the capital and stability to help solve our national productivity problem, while also enabling investment in the breakthroughs in emissions reduction that both Canada and India are hungry to adopt. By building this bridge, we secure our own economic future while exporting the carbon-management solutions a modernizing world demands.
Too often, pipelines are framed as a binary choice between economic growth and environmental responsibility. That framing is outdated. Supplying responsibly produced Canadian oil into global markets does not create demand; it displaces higher-emission, less transparent supply.
Canada stands at a crossroads. We can remain constrained – an energy superpower in theory only – or we can recognize that our prosperity is linked to the global need for the energy we can supply. Building additional capacity to tidewater secures Canadian jobs, strengthens democratic alliances, and positions Canada to lead as an exporter of solutions.
The world is waking up. It is time to unleash Canada.
