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FORT MCMURRAY — Renewed uncertainty in the Middle East is pushing global oil prices higher, while Canada is moving to offer investors greater stability through new export infrastructure and efforts to attract capital back into the country.
Ottawa is advancing the proposed Pacific Link Pipeline, a one-million-barrel-per-day project intended to carry Canadian crude to the West Coast for export to Asian markets.
The project would give Canadian producers greater access to customers outside the United States at a time when geopolitical instability is again highlighting concerns about global energy security.
During an interview with Harvard Media in Fort McMurray, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canadian banks, pension funds and other domestic investors are putting significant amounts of capital into projects at home.
“Canadian capital, the Canadian banks, the Canadian pension funds, the Canadians put up more than four hundred billion dollars of their own money to build in Canada,” Carney said.
He said renewed investment could translate into stronger employment and economic growth.
“It’s going to create great jobs for Canadians, a very clear pathway to a stronger Canada, stronger Alberta, more independence.”
Shares in several of Canada’s largest oilsands producers have also climbed sharply in recent trading.
By midday Tuesday, Suncor Energy shares were trading above $107, Canadian Natural Resources above $73 and Cenovus Energy above $46.
The stronger energy market comes as crude prices surge amid renewed instability in the Middle East.
Brent crude reached nearly US$107 a barrel Monday after Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement launched strikes on Saudi Arabia, raising concerns about global supplies heading into the Northern Hemisphere winter.
West Texas Intermediate was trading above US$93 a barrel.
Markets are also weighing uncertainty surrounding U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim of an “energy ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine.
Russia declined Monday to confirm an agreement had been reached to halt attacks on energy infrastructure, adding another layer of uncertainty to global energy markets.
Carney has said Pacific Link would help narrow the price differential for Canadian crude and diversify exports away from the United States by opening greater access to Asian markets.
Ottawa has designated the pipeline a project of national interest and is working with Alberta, British Columbia, Indigenous groups and other stakeholders on the conditions required for the project to proceed.
Carney says the federal government is aiming to have those conditions in place by the start of September next year.
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