Wouldn’t it make most economic sense to just sell to our own countries in that case if there’s some standardized barrel price?
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[Here’s a picture of all pipelines in North America](https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/574983077426214563/). Only one pipeline goes from Alberta (Canada’s oil source) to the east and it goes from Medicine Hat and not Fort MacMurray. There’s one other west-east line but it passes through the US before entering Canada again.
When we think of Canada’s oil we think of Alberta. But the first oilfield in North America was discovered in Ontario… and it was really really small. As it turned out, most eastern oilfields were quite small. So small that pipeline infrastructure was developed to import oil from Texas… and that was as early as 1920.
Alberta’s first oilfield was discovered in 1947. This is the Leduc #1 Oilfield. And it was huge. Soon after it was found that massive oilfields existed all over Alberta and that this province was sitting on one of the world’s largest oilfields. If they made pipelines heading east they would find themselves in direct competition with Texas who produced a product that was cheaper to make and easier to refine. The Americans also provided a lot of finished oil products that came in these pipelines.
So there was never a financial sense to build pipelines east… when all the customers were to the south. So all pipelines from Alberta traveled south and that’s how it was for a long time. Alberta’s oil would head south to American refineries and then get refined and sold to Ontario and Quebec.
[A little under 15 years ago the Energy East project was proposed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_East). With the US blocking a new pipeline south over political reasons companies saw a bit of a “revenge plot” by supplying Canadian Irving refineries in New Brunswick with all Canadian oil (thus cutting into American sales to Canada). The project was cancelled by Prime Minister Trudeau within his first year in office after a few municipalities and 180 indigenous groups sought to kill the project.
Canadians had no interest in developing new pipelines. In the same year Trudeau bought the TransMountain Pipeline from Kinder Morgan. This pipeline has now been said will never turn a profit over its life.
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