HOUSTON — One of the world’s fastest growing energy consumers is giving Canada the thumbs down when it comes to investing in its domestic oil and gas sector.And the messy political relationship between the two countries could be to blame amid unfounded allegations of political inference and violence towards Canada’s Sikh community.Speaking at the CERAWeek by S&P Global energy conference in Houston, Rajarshi Gupta, the president and CEO of ONGC Videsh Ltd., said his company is scouring the globe for oil and gas deals on four continents — including the US — but Canada isn’t on the list.That’s despite the fact that India’s largest upstream oil and gas producer has a history of partnering with Canadian companies in Alberta’s oil sands and previously sourced drilling equipment and rigs from Calgary-based companies.But his company’s investment arm shut its Calgary office in 2016 and it appears it has no intention of coming back..It comes amid strained relations with Canada, and superficially former prime minister Justin Trudeau amid allegations of political interference and outright assignations of Sikh activists in British Columbia.Tensions soared between India and Canada after Trudeau in September 2023 in the House of Commons claimed that was “credible allegations” of a potential link between Indian agents the killing of a Sikh activist in Surrey, British Columbia.Trudeau relentlessly accused India of orchestrating the hit even as New Delhi maintained its non-involvement in the controversial case, with its ministry of external affairs also saying that Canada has presented no evidence in support of the explosive allegations..That's despite the fact India committed to buy more oil and natural gas from the US when Prime Minister Narendra Modi met US president Donald Trump in Washington last month amid tariff threats. Afterwards, Indian officials said the country’s US energy purchases could increase to USD$25 billion, nearly double from $15 billion last year. .For all the talk of diversifying its customer base, Canada exported about $1.18 billion worth of crude to India in 2023, roughly the same as Spain. By contrast, exports to the US were about $125 billion last year. India is one of the fastest growing energy economies in the world, consuming about 5.4 million barrels per day (bpd). More than 17 million motorists fill their cars and lorries every day at more than 90,000 retail outlets.The country is also scouring the world for LNG to generate electricity. Indian companies including Indian Oil Corp. have long been kicking the tires on possible deals on the West Coast and in the oil sands, but nothing has ever seem to materialize amid tensions between the governments, despite the fact that Indian demand for LNG is expected to grow exponentially over the next decade.On the sidelines The Western Standard attempted to pin Gupta on the reasons for India’s reticence, but sidestepped questions.Rather, he said the company’s investment criteria is clear:“Whenever I am working… I am a corporate citizen of that country. I have to look at the stakeholders of that country. I have to look at the local population of that country. We are there for 20 years, 25 years in many countries, and when we do that, we become one of their own,” he said.“So that's how we look at our investments — is the material below the surface? Is there some stability above the surface? Can we form partnerships long term? Can we bring in more stakeholders into our development? Can we do more collaboration, cooperation with like minded (governments) and that's how we want to grow.”
