President Trump has largely succeeded in repositioning the Americas as the new centre of world energy markets. Canada – particularly Alberta and Saskatchewan, with the world’s third-largest oil reserves and stable oil-sands production – is exceptionally well placed to benefit, provided Canadian policy stops fighting the continental reality and starts leveraging it..Thus Brian Lee Crowley to host Nigel Hannaford, on tonight's edition of the Western Standard’s Hannaford show."One of Donald Trump's major ambitions has been to end the dominance of the Middle East on world oil prices and supply, to break up OPEC, and to shift the centre of the world oil market away from the Middle East towards the Americas. And I think that we're living through the consequences of that strategy.".Crowley, founder of Ottawa’s Macdonald-Laurier Institute and the Washington-based Center for North American Prosperity and Security, says the global “warming revolution” is effectively dead. While Western economies rushed to slash carbon emissions, they lost sight of fossil fuels’ indispensable role in economic resilience and national security.It is well-known that the Hormuz crisis – triggered when Iran attempted to weaponize the chokepoint that carries roughly 20 per cent of the world’s oil – has now turned a well-supplied European market into one drawing down inventories at a rapid pace. Gasoline prices in Great Britain and Europe have jumped about 20 per cent. Canada, sitting atop vast reserves, is also paying more at the pump.Yet the real story, Crowley said, is how President Trump has exploited the crisis to execute a long-planned geopolitical shift. By forcing Iran’s hand and prompting tanker traffic to reroute around Africa toward the U.S. Gulf Coast, Trump has accelerated the move of the world oil market’s centre of gravity away from the Middle East and toward the Americas..Saudi Arabia, he says, is now shipping seven million barrels per day via the Red Sea; the United Arab Emirates has expanded bypass pipelines, also to the Red Sea, carrying two million barrels per day. The UAE has even announced it is leaving OPEC.Meanwhile, empty Very Large Crude Carriers are heading to American ports, where the United States – now the world’s largest oil exporter at 10–13 million barrels per day equivalent – stands ready to load them..Energy minister says Canada must diversify oil exports beyond US, as Trump approves Bridger pipeline.Within the U.S., there is now increased need for a stable, reliable supply to sustain its export surge to Europe and Asia. In this new landscape, Canada approved the Bridger pipeline project last month. Using existing repurposed Keystone XL infrastructure, it will move 500,000 barrels per day south into the U.S. market..Crowley views the move as logical in the short term: America needs stable, new supplies to field the increased demand. But he questioned why Ottawa is not pursuing bolder domestic options. If the US is to serve the European market with Canadian oil, why should not Canada serve it directly with a new east-west pipeline of its own?"It's Prime Minister Mark Carney." Crowley says he talks constantly about diversifying trade and building “big things,” but at the same time allows eastward routes to Quebec or Churchill to remain politically dead. Then he imposes conditions on any West Coast pipeline – requiring unprecedented provincial and First Nations consent..The result, Crowley warns, is that Alberta oil will increasingly flow south to Gulf of Mexico tidewater, deepening continental integration and inadvertently advancing Trump’s vision of an Americas-first energy superpower.Alberta’s oil sands are already highly profitable. Production costs have fallen dramatically on existing capacity built before 2015, and majors such as Shell are returning to the market.Yet Crowley pointed out that no significant new greenfield projects have been added for over a decade. Carney’s insistence on carbon-capture requirements and pipeline hurdles, for exa ple, is preventing the next wave of expansion precisely when global markets are crying out for stable, non-OPEC supply.Crowley was unsparing about the politics. He accused Carney of exploiting anti-American sentiment for short-term gain rather than advancing Canada’s long-term interests. The notion of meaningful alternatives –whether the EU (with whom Canada already has a decade-old free-trade deal that has led to no new exports) or China – is, in Crowley’s view, fanciful.For Alberta and Saskatchewan, the message was clear: the pieces on the global chessboard have moved decisively in North America’s favour – that is, in their favour. The opportunity is enormous. Federal policy just needs to align with geographic and economic reality.The Hannaford show uploads at seven o'clock tonight.
