‘Retaliatory pipelines’: Push to export crude away from U.S. intensifies amid tariffs

CAPP said diversify exports into Asia and Europe would promote long-term stability, and securing Ontario and Quebec's energy supply must be a national priority.

The push for Canada to send more of its oil and natural gas to markets outside of the United States intensified Tuesday as U.S. President Donald Trump pressed ahead with a 10 per cent levy on energy imports.

“This crisis demonstrates the clear and urgent need to build more natural resource infrastructure,” said the Explorers and Producers Association of Canada, which represents conventional oil and gas producers.

Lisa Baiton, president and CEO of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), called for an urgent policy overhaul to allow viable projects to proceed.

She said diversifying exports into Asia and Europe would promote long-term stability, and that securing Ontario and Quebec’s energy supply must be a national priority as well.

“We are at a significant moment in Canada’s history — we need to seize this moment,” she said.

Meanwhile, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said her province sits on one of the biggest petroleum reserves in the world, and before the tariffs came in, she would have loved to double the amount sold to the United States.

“Now we’re going to have to look at ‘Can we sell more off the West Coast, the East Coast and up north,’ because if the Americans don’t want our products, the rest of the world does,” she told CNBC in an interview Tuesday.

The CEO of Enbridge Inc., which on any given day is the largest-single conduit for crude flowing by pipeline to the United States, said the tariffs aren’t likely to change his company’s near-term strategy or outlook.