Oil aid to Europe | Minister Wilkinson plans plan by March 23

(Ottawa) Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says it will take another week or two before Canada knows for sure how much more oil it can produce and ship to help offset fuel bans fossils from Russia.

But he said longer-term conversations about a Canada-Europe renewable energy partnership are likely more realistic and lucrative.

Mr Wilkinson spends most of his time on the phone with G7 partners and energy industry leaders to figure out how best to help Europe reduce its dependence on Russia by as an energy source.

He has spent most of the past week at an energy conference in Houston, had several calls with US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and on Thursday took part in a two-hour conference call with the G7 energy ministers. The Ukrainian Minister of Energy also participated in this last discussion.

“As part of the discussions, not only with the Americans, but also with the Europeans, we basically asked ourselves, as oil and gas producers, to look at everything we can do,” he said. he said in an interview.

All of these talks will lead up to March 23, when the International Energy Agency is hosting a meeting of energy ministers in Paris.

“I expect that by the time I go to Paris we have a pretty good idea of ​​what we can do,” he said. I mean, we have constraints on pipeline capacity, obviously, but we’re certainly looking at using it fully at this point to help stabilize global energy markets and to help our friends and allies in Europe. »

But even as the world’s fourth largest oil producer, Canada’s role in meeting Europe’s immediate fossil fuel needs will be limited. Canada exports about 3.6 million barrels of oil per day, but 97% of those exports go to the United States.

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault estimated this week that Canada may be able to increase production by 200,000 barrels a day. Tristan Goodman, president of the Explorers and Producers Association of Canada, said it might be possible to get to an increase of 400,000 barrels “if we’re lucky”.

To replace all the oil it receives from Russia, Europe needs three million barrels a day.

Keystone XL Project

Critics of the government say the Liberals’ failure to get new pipelines built has limited Canada’s oil industry and meant we can no longer help when needed.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said last week that if US President Joe Biden hadn’t killed the Keystone XL pipeline a year ago, it might have been available to replace Russian oil from by the end of this year.

Liberals in Canada have supported this project, but avoid pushing too hard on the Biden administration to get it revived.

Mr Wilkinson said he raised it with Mr^me Granholm in Texas, but Mr. Biden campaigned on the promise to overturn it, and Mr. Wilkinson said he doesn’t see that changing.

“I certainly indicated that Canada continues to believe that this project should have gone ahead,” he said.

Nor does Canada have a strategic oil reserve like the United States to turn to at a moment’s notice.

However, Mr Wilkinson said now was not the time to shift away from clean energy investments to squeeze out more oil. In fact, he said his talks with Europe were largely about transitioning faster to clean energy like hydrogen.

Canada and Europe are very focused on what can be done to move away from oil and natural gas more quickly. Hydrogen, which both countries want to adopt more widely as a source of electricity, requires an increase in demand and production in Canada before exports can be considered, Wilkinson said.

But being aware of what Europe is going to want and how quickly it might want it is key, he said.

“So those are precisely the conversations I will have in Paris,” he said.