Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says the United States should be seeking his province’s oil instead of getting it from Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
Responding to a report by Axion that U.S. President Joe Biden may travel to Saudi Arabia in the coming months to request more oil amid the Russia-Ukraine crisis, Kenney said he would be delighted to welcome the president should he decide to visit Alberta.
“We could discuss how to ship nearly 1 million barrels of day of responsibly produced energy every day from the USA’s closest friend and ally!” he said in a tweet on March 6.
The United States is the world’s largest oil producer ahead of Saudi Arabia and Russia, but it is also the biggest oil consumer, and it can’t meet that staggering demand with domestic crude alone.
The United States imported 245 million barrels of oil from Russia last year—about 8 percent of all U.S. oil imports—up from 198 million barrels in 2020. That’s less than it gets from Canada or Mexico but more than it imported last year from Saudi Arabia.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sparked a price hike in gasoline in the United States. On March 6, the price of gas surpassed $4 (C$5.12) a gallon for the first time in nearly 14 years.
Oil prices soared early March 7 before retreating. In midday trading, benchmark U.S. crude was up 2 percent to about $118 (C$151.12) a barrel, and the international price gained 4 percent to around $123 (C$157.52) a barrel. Major U.S. stock indexes were down about 2 percent.
With calls to ban the import of Russian oil, and concerns that such a move would exacerbate the prices of gasoline and oil, Biden has been hesitant to make a decision.
Kenney proposed a solution.
“All it would take is [Biden’s] approval for Keystone XL. Easy,” the premier said in his tweet.
By Isaac Teo
