It has only recently been finding its feet after two years of pandemic complications, but the global economy must now deal with shock waves from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The stakes here are huge.
On the economic front, they could result in what Simon Flowers, chief analyst for energy research consultancy Wood Mackenzie, has said is a fundamental shift in Russia’s international energy-trading relationships.
Any fundamental shift there will have major implications for global energy markets.
Russia, after all, is the world’s second-largest natural gas producer, and Western Europe is one of its largest customers and has been for decades.
In 2021, Russia accounted for
approximately 45% of Europe’s 2021 natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports.
That cannot be easily or quickly replaced, nor can Russia’s role in global energy supplies be discounted.
But, aside from threatening to destabilize world order, Vladimir Putin’s Ukrainian gambit has unified the West in opposition to Russian aggression.
Europe and other regions heavily reliant on Russian hydrocarbon resources are consequently considering how to reduce that reliance.
That will require reliable alternative energy suppliers.
The United States has the reserves and infrastructure to fill that role, especially for Europe.
But B.C. could also be one of those alternative energy suppliers, especially for two of the world’s fastest growing gas markets: China and India, both of which are key to Russia’s eastern gas market strategy.
B.C. has Canada’s second-largest natural gas reserves, and its LNG Canada project, which will initially have an annual export capacity of 13 million tonnes, promises to be a major distribution point for what is an important bridge fuel to a lower-carbon energy future.
What it needs, however, is the vision and competitive resolve to press its case and deliver the goods as a major global energy supplier.
On those counts, B.C. has yet to show that it has the right stuff.
