The Facts

The headline screamed: “The end of oil age” in the Economist in 2003. Fast forward 18 years and that still doesn’t make sense in many ways. The demand for oil is increasing across the globe. Even U.S. President Joe Biden is now asking OPEC to produce more oil.

Canadian Energy Centre Executive Director of Operations Mike Simpson joined Business Insider host Mario Toneguzzi to discuss the positive impact of the oil and gas sector on Canada’s four Atlantic provinces.

 

Next year will mark 30 years of offshore oil and natural gas production in Atlantic Canada. In that time, the region has been the primary source of human capital for the oil and gas industry in other parts of Canada, while also being a significant recipient of the benefits from oil and gas activity.

With the recent rise in the price of natural gas in Europe to five times where it was in early 2021, expect to see many more Europeans and those in United Kingdom plunged into what’s known as “energy poverty.” From Greece to Great Britain and everywhere in between, the European electricity grid has increasingly been delinked from reliable affordable fossil fuels and hooked up to more expensive and intermittent wind and solar projects.

 

 

In 2009, the central European country of Ukraine endured a twin lesson in geopolitics and energy security: Russia cut off its natural gas supply in mid-winter.

 

One of the more bizarre developments in Europe in recent years has been the twin policy path whereby fossil fuels are discouraged in favour of wind and solar, but deals are yet struck with autocracies such as Russia to import more fossil fuel via pipelines.