Ottawa/CMEDIA: Following reportedly Canada’s energy minister’s announcement that Canada will contribute 23.6 million barrels to help stabilize international energy markets, Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said that countries like Canada do not need to have oil reserves as a net exporter.
A co-ordinated release of oil stocks has been agreed by the 32 member countries of the International Energy Agency, including Canada as the war in Iran destabilizes oil supply chains.
“The rules are you should have at least 90 days reserves for those importers…we provide oil to the global market…because we are a safe, low-risk, low-cost, and increasingly low-carbon exporter,” Carney said during a media scrum at the Holmenkollen Skifestival on Saturday with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store.
Carney also said that this contribution will require Canada to increase its oil production.
Carney met with Norwegian energy company Equinor Saturday morning to talk about the proposed Bay du Nord oil project off the coast of Newfoundland.
“That will provide additional, not in the short term but in the medium term — again, very low carbon oil in terms of production and transportation, which is one of the reasons why it’s attractive,” Carney said.
Equinor added that they have an estimated initial investment of $14 billion in the Bay du Nord project.
Carney also had a meeting with Landsvirkjun, the national energy company of Iceland, according to a spokesperson for Carney.
Carney’s spokesperson said that Carney also met with Maersk, an international shipping company responsible for about 15 percent of global container traffic,
Amidst these meetings about potential future investment and jobs, Canada posted 84,000 lost jobs in February.
“Every month wages have grown faster than inflation. In fact, you saw in the most recent month wage growth above four per cent … Canadians are getting ahead. It’s going to take longer for that to fully realize,” Carney said, noting inflation rose “a lot” in the last couple of years.
Canada is moving forward with a variety of significant projects, said Carney and pointed to new military bases and the upcoming construction of the Mackenzie Valley Highway announced in Yellowknife at the start of this trip.
Also touting the creation of the Major Projects Office, Carney said, which would speed up approvals of nation building projects.
Carney visited Holmenkollen, Norway, just north of Oslo, outside of business meetings where he met with some Canadian athletes competing in the International Ski Federation Nordic World Cup. This included Olympians Alison Mackie and Xavier McKeever.
Carney reportedly also met with the king and queen of Norway at the Holmenkollen Skifestival, but that was a closed event.
After the festival, Carney and Store will return to Oslo for a dinner meeting to focus on foreign investment, clean energy, critical minerals, aerospace and artificial intelligence.
Global energy security would also be discussed by the two leaders as the war in Iran continues to disrupt supply chains.
“The like-mindedness is really based on some key economic foundations,” Store said during the media scrum.
“Prime Minister Carney, during this year, has made a real new boost in that relationship across the Atlantic. And we sometimes call Canada an honorary Nordic.”
On Sunday Carney and Store are scheduled to meet with the leaders of four other Nordic nations.
Store said that the meeting was convened after he told the leaders of Iceland, Denmark, Finland and Sweden that Carney was going to be in Norway this weekend.
