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 press 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," he added.

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[–] bitwise@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's worse than that. He's trying to spin it as beneficial to us because we'll beat them with our cleaner oil...somehow. You know, because people who shamelessly pillage other nations for their resources are going to care about our cleaner oil.

Cheaper is a straight-up fabrication. It's not going to be cheaper to refine our sandy crude than it is for Venezuela to do a shittier job of refining their own oil. Especially when you consider that colonial powers usually don't care about externalized costs like environmental damage, or death/injury to the locals that are ~~enslaved~~ tasked with extracting/refining the oil.

And lower risk? In what way? Oil tankers require a bit more effort and commitment to damage/destroy than overland pipelines do.

Carney manages to look inept in three different ways. No matter how you slice it, this ain't the guy you want at the helm when we're under threat. I wouldn't be surprised if this was always the game plan. Just 'cause the party's called "Liberal" doesn't mean the guy running it is, and given all of the weak, appeasing language he's used regarding this catastrophe, it wouldn't surprise me if paving the way for annexation is his real goal.

[–] humanspiral@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago

And lower risk?

That is his only point. A sustainable Venezuela society is one where the state gets a large share of revenue and control over oil. It is unlikely for Trump to provide the Venezuelan people with that formula, which is why Chavez came to power in the first place. But stealing oil for a few years will still undercut tar sands potentially.