Diane Francis: Canada and the U.S. should ban all oil imports from OPEC, Saudi Arabia, Russia and form their own energy pact – By Diane Francis (Financial Post) / April 23 2020
Banning offshore oil would add 2.5 million barrels a day to the American and Canadian oil market when demand returns
Canada and the United States should join forces by banning all oil imports from Saudi Arabia, Russia and other OPEC countries and replace it with oil produced right here in North America.
The creation of an OPEC-free market would protect our two countries from price shocks and ensure our energy independence. Given OPEC’s ongoing sabotage of international oil markets, a bilateral energy pact will be essential going forward.
The U.S. and Canada produce as much oil as Saudi Arabia and Russia combined and can produce more than enough to meet our combined domestic needs. By 2019, the Canadian and American oil industries were already heavily integrated. Western Canada exported 4.4 million barrels a day of oil to the United States, and the U.S. exported one million barrels a day to eastern Canada. We also imported from foreigners: up to half a million barrels a day was imported to eastern Canada, mainly from Saudi Arabia, but also from Norway, the United Kingdom, Nigeria and Azerbaijan. The United States produced more than 12 million barrels a day, but also imported another two million barrels daily from Saudi Arabia, Russia, Mexico and Colombia.
COVID-19 has revealed the danger of relying on foreign supply chains, whether it be for masks or commodities
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